Trail isn’t likely to reopen anytime soon
The Severy Creek Trail wasn’t one of the best-known in the region, but those who knew it loved it.
Dense pine forests, a cold creek that cascades into waterfalls, glittering aspen groves and clusters of rock formations made this hike up the flank of Pikes Peak memorable.
If you’ve hiked Severy before, consider yourself lucky. If you haven’t, you’ll have to go somewhere else for your bubbling creekwaterfall-pine forest fix.
Severy Creek Trail is closed, and the prospects of it reopening are dim. Governing agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife — have chosen to shelter a protected species of trout by prohibiting people, dogs, bikes and horses on the trail.
“The Forest Service has gotten feedback from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — the agency responsible for threatened and endangered species,” said Steve Tapia, wildlife biologist for the Pikes Peak district of the Forest Service. “They asked us not to reopen the trail until we have those fish replicated somewhere else.”
The trail was closed abruptly in 1999 after a Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist discovered the population of greenback cutthroat trout in the creek.
The trout species was important — until this population was found on Pikes Peak, it was thought to have vanished from this area. Yet, there it was, a pure genetic strain; living, reproducing and dying in the clear, cold pools of Severy.
The trail was closed to protect the greenbacks from whirling disease, which somehow had not made its way into Severy.
The closure has locked up about 3½ miles of the Severy Creek Trail, from the confluence of that creek with Fountain Creek, upstream on Pikes Peak to its headwaters near Elk Park.
Severy Creek wasn’t a trail for long. Because the creek was part of a vital water supply for the town of Cascade down below, the land around it had been closed since 1913. When Cascade upgraded its system and drew water from Colorado Springs’ supply in 1990, Severy was opened for exploration.
It featured an easy creekside hike for about 2 miles, then headed uphill in a more grueling section, climbing 1,000 feet in the third mile alone. At its end, about 4 miles up, it intersected with the Elk Park Trail, taking hikers to an alpine meadow high on the highway, and it linked up with Barr Trail.
Since the trail’s closure, the DOW has monitored the creek and its fish, and last fall, lowwater crossings were installed so future trail visitors could cross the creek without entering the water.
Now, those bridges are only used by biologists who visit the area to check up on the trout.
Dan Cleveland, executive director of the Trails & Open Space Coalition, said very few people ask about hiking Severy Creek. “We get no calls from the public. There are a million trails out there, and closing this one makes sense, if they can save that species of trout,” he said.
