Hell’s Hole - Trail #53
Beginning Elevation: 9640
High Point: 11500
End Elevation: 11500
Difficulty: Moderate
Length, One Way: 4 miles
Seasons: Summer through Fall
USGS Quads: Georgetown
Other Maps: Arapaho National Forest, Trails Illustrated #104
Usage Level: High
Access Trailheads: Hell’s Hole
Description
This is a very popular trail leading up into the glacial cirque known as Hells Hole.
Traveling along West Chicago Creek, the trail climbs steadily for about a mile to a bench above and west of the creek. The trail continues climbing, but less steeply, through lodgepole forest and into the bristlecone pines. The trail ends at timberline at the foot of Hell's Hole, in an open meadow where alpine willows grow at the base of Grey Wolf Mountain.
TRAIL'S HISTORY
The Hells Hole trail was constructed and added to the system between 1938 and 1945. It likely followed the general line of an existing social trail.
In September of 1945, a Vultee BT-13 Navy trainer crashed into the forest on the east side of Hells Hole. One man died in the accident and the other crewman survived. The wreckage was occasionally visited by hikers until, in 1998, it was removed from the Wilderness.