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BackpackingCampingHiking

The Never Summer Mountains form the dramatic western edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, a chain of 12,000-foot peaks where winter is long and unrelenting. This campsite typically doesn’t even open until mid-July. Skeleton Gulch offers a remote camping experience, with just one campsite high in a pretty alpine basin. It’s 6.2 miles and 1,600 feet of elevation gain to reach the site from the Colorado River Trailhead. There is a creek where backpackers can filter water, but no bathroom at the campsite.

Pro Tips

  • Hikers can make a loop back to the trailhead by following the road along Grand Ditch and then dropping down on the Red Mountain Trail. The road is very level and though it’s long, the miles pass easily.
  • If you have extra time, Thunder Pass makes a worthy day trip from the Skeleton Gulch Campsite. It can even be a shuttle loop if you leave a car at the American Lakes Trailhead on the north side of the pass.
  • There is no bathroom at this campsite so be sure to bury solid waste 200 feet away from camp and away from water sources.

    • Recommended season(s): Mid-July – early fall.

    —R. Scott Rappold

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