08/31/05 Upper Piney River Trail (6 miles round trip to the falls):
Low 40's this morning at 9400 feet... not too unusual. Picked up the trail outside the gate of Piney River Ranch and followed along the edge of the ranch to the lake. Piney Lake had fog rising off of it as I passed along side it at 8am.
The trail follows a long meadow with towering crags and peaks protecting the exit from Piney River Canyon at the far end. Aspen covered hills line the left side of the meadow while steep slopes of spruce are to the right. Upper Piney River meanders back and forth across the meadow to the lake.
2/3 of the way up the two mile meadow, the trail enters the aspens and begins to rise. After crossing a couple of streams aspen become mixed with pines and the trail continues to rise, a total of about 500 feet. All of that gain is given up as the trail turns sharply downward. A fat granite belly sticks out and seems to go all the way down to the river.
The trail drops all the way to the river. My first thought was where are the falls? Nothing but a small falls near the trail. Looking downstream I could see some significant drops. I climbed down and saw a small chute and below that a falls dropping under a small log jam. I climbed around rocks by the river for a while and then went a little farther upstream before turning back.