Lincoln National Forest - Lucas Canyon revisited

 Lucas Canyon is as beautiful as ever, although I was saddened that there were vodka bottles and toilet paper strewn around the trailhead parking, as well as tire ruts from a vehicle in the streambed about a 1/4 mile in. There always has been  people who don't know how to behave in the outdoors, right now though, there is definitely more of them taking their irresponsible life style to our forests. One thing I'll  be happy about if we ever get back to "normal" is that most of these folks will go back to doing whatever it was they were doing to entertain themselves before, instead of abusing our natural areas.
The last two times I've come here to the lower end, I've been opting for using the wildlife and livestock trails that stick close to the stream course rather than following the  road ( trail) which goes high up on the hillside before bringing you back down at the big meadows about 2 miles in. It's quieter( putting trees and distance between you and motorized users) for sure and there are many more springs to see, although most had only a weak flow at this point so that the stream only had  running water in a couple of places past the road crossing,
 On the way out we used the two  cow trails close  on either side of the stream. The route was mostly open and bit warm, especially since we got a late start after fixed flat we incurred on Russia Canyon Road. We stopped at the beginning of the big meadows and instead of returning exactly the way we came, went for the elk trails in the shady forested hill sides above the stream. There were some truly large trees, doug firs and spruces, to greet as we marched along. At times the path we chose  was well traveled and easy to follow, at others it would disappear and we  would have to be stepping over the abundant aspen downfall as we made our way through small meadows. Eventually we hiked steeply back down to the creek bed, crossing a small spring flowing in rocky ravine, to then retrace our first 1/2 mile or so back to our vehicle.

 NOTE: Please excuse the very poor quality of these photos. I'm not sure what was going on that day. For a better idea of what Lucas Canyon looks like see my previous blogs about it.