Steamboat Rock — Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025

Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Lost World depicts an elevated plateau, surrounded by sheer cliffs making it so inaccessible and isolated from the rest of the world, that it is still populated by dinosaurs. I can't helping thinking about this, and the 1925 silent film based on the novel, when I'm on top of Steamboat Rock. I admit I haven't yet seen any dinosaurs, but I'm going to keep looking.

Getting on top of this rock is not nearly as challenging as in The Lost World, but it does have one tricky section early in the ascent, a steep gully covered in loose rock for roughly 100 feet of climb. Coming down this, especially if you're tired, is the main challenge of a day here. I was glad I had poles and good boots.

The top is really divided into two relatively flat sections, with a valley dividing them. The east end of this valley is where you hike up, and then you have a choice of going north to the largest flat area, or south/west to a much smaller plateau. Most people will prefer the larger northern area. I started by going counter-clockwise around the northern perimeter. The perimeter trail sometimes comes very close to the edge, which is fun if looking at a 500-foot drop is your kind of fun, but you can step back if it's not. Since there was snow, I could see that a previous hiker had chosen to keep some distance from the edge. There's also a trail that goes more up the middle of the plateau, with a little more elevation but without the drop-off thrills.

Because I drove a long way for this hike (staying overnight in the state park), I wanted to see everything, so also hiked around the southern plateau and then through the valley, for a total of about 6 miles and 800 feet of climb. It was lightly snowing the whole time, but it wasn't unpleasant until a stiff breeze started pelting me with wet snow. Fortunately I was ready to head down at that point anyway. And the snow added to the otherworldly atmosphere.

I didn't see another human all day. Tracks in the snow showed that one had been here within the last day or two. But most tracks were from the resident deerosaurs, er, deer. Of those, I personally encountered two groups of about 10 each. I also saw some rabbit tracks.