Pikes Peak Region Trail Finder

There's still beauty in the Hayman fire burn area

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Created on Wednesday, 15 June 2011 17:22

Written by Dena Rosenberry

Hikers set out on the Gill Trail through the Hayman burn area. Kevin Kreck, Special to The Gazette

By R. Scott Rappold, The Gazette

PIKE NATIONAL FOREST•  It’s hard to believe now.

Take a drive through the matchstick wasteland on Forest Service Road 211, or hike up the Goose Creek Trail through what was once a centuries-old ponderosa pine forest, or pitch a tent in a rare oasis where only half the trees are burnt, and it’s difficult to imagine that this was once a recreational playground.

Today we know it as the Hayman burn area, for the 2002 forest fire — Colorado’s largest ever — that scorched 138,000 acres and destroyed 133 homes in the foothills between Lake George and Deckers.

A growing number of campers, hikers, hunters, anglers, ATV enthusiasts and others are returning to the area and finding beauty among the ruins.

(See tips on visiting the area below.  See additional photos from our recent visit.)

“I didn’t know what to expect nine years ago. It was so seriously devastated,” said Carol Ekarius, executive director of the Coalition for the Upper South Platte, one of many organizations that have worked to restore parts of the burn area.

And now?

“It appeals aesthetically, in a different way. You can see rock outcroppings. You can see promontories that you never would see before. It does not have that feel of devastation and horrible ugliness now, but it’s not going to look like a forest for a long time, either.”

The area lacks the high peaks of areas north and west, but was popular among anglers for the Gold Medal trout fisheries of the South Platte River, camping families for its close proximity to Front Range cities, ATV riders for its good network of rough trails, and hikers for its access to the Lost Creek Wilderness.

About half of the burn area was rated “severe,” meaning most trees and vegetation were destroyed. In some areas, intermixed dead and live trees give the area a healthier, if thinned, feel.

The entire area was closed to the public for about a year. The Forest Service permanently shut 55 miles of roads and trails to vehicles, and four campgrounds were abandoned. The Goose Creek Campground, in a green valley on Forest Service Road 211 in the heart of the burn area, was spared from the flames and reopened after the fire.

Despite the devastation on all sides, the campground is popular, and its 10 sites are usually filled for summer weekends by Thursday. Disappointed campers who make the long drive can look for free sites along Forest Service Road 211, marked by “P” parking signs, or throw on a backpack and hike up the nearby Goose Creek Trail to find a spot.

Camping in the burn area requires caution. Dead trees can topple in the slightest wind, and with hillsides bare, it doesn’t take much rain to cause flash floods that have washed out homes and highways since 2002.

• • •

Fishing is making a comeback in the burn area. Kevin Kreck, Special to The Gazette

In the months after the fire, the only signs of life in the severely burned areas were tips of yucca sprouting from the ashes.

The landscape was much greener in late May. Grasses and shrubs grew knee- and waist-high, and ponderosa pine seedlings planted since the fire were 5 feet tall. Aspens have thrived, with pockets of trees 15 to 20 feet high. In wet years — this year is not one — wildflowers cover the hillsides.

With its wide-open vistas, the area has become a hot spot for big-game hunters, who can spy animals from great distances.

Deer and elk have returned to the burn scar in large numbers, drawn by the open canopy that has allowed grasses and shrubs to thrive, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife this year reintroduced a herd of bighorn sheep.

“Hunters don’t seem to be the kind of folks who are going to mind being in areas that have been burned, as opposed to maybe people who are aesthetically hiking,” said DOW spokesman Michael Seraphin. The DOW could not provide a breakdown of animal harvests in the burn scar, because its game-management units go beyond the Hayman area.

Fishing, too, is improving.

Before the fire, the trout fishing on the South Platte River below Cheesman Reservoir was considered among the best in Colorado. Sediment from runoff and water-quality issues after Hayman took a major toll on fishing here.

Anglers lined the banks of the river below Cheesman Reservoir late last month, though the reservoir remains closed until at least May 2012, as Denver Water continues restoration work.

“They’re starting to come back. The river’s doing better … still not 100 percent,” said Danny Brennan, owner of Deckers shop Flies and Lies. He estimated the fish population at 70 percent of that before the fire.

• • •

As soon as the forest was reopened in 2003, many locals cautiously returned to see if their favorite spots remained, said area resident Lisa Patton, volunteer coordinator for the Coalition for the Upper South Platte.

Today, people often ask her when the forest will return to how it looked before. They point to the devastating fires that burned 36 percent of Yellowstone National Park in 1988 and how the forests there are again thick.

But those are lodgepole pines, a tree with cones designed to release with fire, which help them rebound and grow quickly. In Hayman, the ponderosas planted since the fire won’t be seed-bearing for 70 years, and they may not proliferate enough to restore the forest for 500 years.

So, long after the beetle-ravaged lodgepole pine forests in northern Colorado have rejuvenated, visitors to Hayman will see a forest in transition, a living display of fire’s destructive forces and nature’s persistence to recover from it.

Besides, Patton said, “If you come back in the summer, these hills have the best raspberry supplies on the planet.”

The Hayman burn area will take decades to recover fully, but signs of life are everywhere. Kevin Kreck, Special to The Gazette

SEE THE BURN
The easiest way to observe nature’s slow recovery from the 2002 Hayman fire is on Forest Service Road 211, a graded dirt road suitable for passenger cars.  It takes about two hours to drive the 25-mile road without stops, but you’ll want to stop.

Some highlights include the Goose Creek Campground, which is usually full on weekends, and the Goose Creek and Wigwam trails, with access to the Lost Creek Wilderness.

Cheesman Reservoir, a once-popular stop on the road, remains closed until May 2012, but stop above it for stark vistas of desolation as far as the eye can see, with Pikes Peak towering in the distance.

The best camping is in the campground, though free dispersed camping is available along the road. Watch for marked parking spots, and be careful not to camp too close to dead standing trees.
Directions:
From Lake George, head north on County Road 77 for seven miles and turn right onto Forest Service Road 211.
From Deckers, head west on County Road 126 for three miles and turn left onto Forest Service Road 211. Watch for flash floods during and immediately after rainstorms.