We arrived at the Monte Cristo trailhead at about noon, after having parked in the last spot on the road because the parking lot at Barlow Pass was full. I had been very excited to hike this trail for awhile, especially after our first attempt in April was stopped short due to the highway snow closure at Deer Creek. The gated forest road a few hundred feet east from Barlow Pass is where you want to be. After continuing along this road for a little while, you should see some signage that indicates you're in the right place.
Most of the 4.5 mile hike in is just a logging/forest road, with intermittent hills and dips here and there...oh and a very cool log crossing that I thought was actually quite safe and stable if you're careful. There's a railroad bridge that you cross after that, and one that you don't behind it that has sunken into the South Fork Sauk. The river and mountain views are spectacular along the way. We found a good cookout spot along the river that was quite private.
We saw a lot of children and groups of hikers on the way in, and they were friendly enough, but I'm glad they were gone by the time we got to the Monte Cristo townsite. When you hit the 4 mile marker, you'll see a trail that goes up to the campground to the left. If you keep going straight, you'll reach the townsite. There were still a sh*t ton of people there and their kids, so it was kind of annoying, but I still got some good pictures in. We headed up the bridge to the left to Dumas St. to check out the actual old townsite and see some of the historical photos.
At the end of that trail, we came to another intersection, and we proceeded straight to Glacier Basin. You should sign the registry. We actually didn't make it all the way to the basin, but stopped right before the waterfalls because we saw other hikers. It was a gorgeous, almost elven-like experience being in the misty mountains with a beautiful waterfall in the backdrop. I would really recommend coming up this way.
We made our way back down, then checked out the few remaining red houses towards the Silver Lake direction, but we encountered some nice hikers who told us the remains of the mining site had been removed so there wasn't much to see beyond that point. We decided to turn back and start making lunch!
I rated this hike 5 stars even though the logging trail is quite boring and long because there are lots of interesting places to explore. For instance, the Glacier Falls that we saw was amazing and there's also an option to head to Silver Lake too.
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