There is a piece of wisdom shared by every elk and mule deer between Boulder and Galena Gulch, where animal survival meets hiker’s sense: Every gulch that funnels water down to the Boulder River also cleaves passage up toward Doe Ridge.
Kilborn Gulch is both feeder creek and hiking trail, and it’s a good place to eat and hide if you are big game on winter range. Beginning at an elevation of 5,000 feet, the wide dirt path slips along a creek-bottom trench of aspen and juniper saplings bounded by high-sweeping flanks of Douglas fir. From the gulch’s ridgetops cresting at around 800 feet above the trail, giant slabs of fractured granite jut out beneath a canopy open enough to invite sloping swaths of grass. When frigid temperatures crust the upland ridges, mule deer seek out the lower cover breached by clearings with easier access to the browse they prefer to supplement their winter fat reserves. Narrow tucks in topography offer routes of escape while rocky perches serve as lookout posts for elk evading predators.
The first mile of trail crosses a 373-acre parcel the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has managed since 1969, when the Kyler Ranch Company relented to the indisputable pageant of elk and mule deer and relinquished grazing privileges on that land. The BLM designates this tract as Big Game Winter Range, reserving the resource exclusively for wintering elk and mule deer by excluding cattle year-round, as well as snowmobiles. Wheeled vehicles are prohibited from Oct. 1 to June 15.
