Mayflower Gulch Trail

Mayflower Gulch is a walk up an old mining road to a cluster of log cabins in a cirque under Fletcher Mountain, 1.5 miles from a highway pullout between Copper Mountain and Fremont Pass. The grade is gentle, the payoff is a wall of 13,000-foot peaks, and it works in every season, which is why it is one of the busiest trailheads in Summit County in both July and January.

From the parking area on Colorado 91, walk around the gate and up the old road. The road beyond the gate is closed to all vehicles and bikes because of damage to the bridge over Mayflower Creek, so everyone walks it now. It climbs steadily through spruce and fir, crossing the creek once, with the cirque opening ahead as the trees thin. At about 1.4 miles the road reaches the meadow and the remains of the Boston Mine camp: a few roofless log cabins, mine timbers, and rusting hardware in a bowl ringed by Fletcher Mountain, Drift Peak, and the ridge toward Pacific Peak.

The cabins are the turnaround for most people, at roughly 11,500 feet. The road continues a short way to the mine workings above, and a faint trail climbs the slope east toward Gold Hill and the ridge, but that is steep, loose, and only worth it for the view. Return the way you came.

The trailhead is a gravel lot on the east (left, southbound) side of Colorado 91, 5.3 miles south of I-70 exit 195 at Copper Mountain and about 5 miles north of Fremont Pass. It holds perhaps 30 cars and overflows onto the shoulder on winter weekends, where the highway patrol tickets anything past the signs. There is no fee, permit, or toilet. The lot is plowed in winter.

Dogs are allowed and are usually off leash on the road, though voice control is the Forest Service rule. Kids do well here: short, gentle, and cabins to explore, with the usual warning that mine timbers and openings are not playground equipment. The cabins are fragile and stripped of anything that could be carried off; leave them that way. The trailhead is at 10,900 feet, so people driving up from Denver for the day feel the altitude on the first grade. The road is also a popular sled and fat-bike route in winter. Copper Mountain has the nearest food and gas; Breckenridge and Frisco are 20 minutes away, and the Tenmile Range page lists the neighbors.