Snowshoe at Butler Gulch in Empire

The day we chose for our snowshoe was New Years Day.  The roads were very slick as it was snowing pretty good. We were afraid to get our cars stuck at the trailhead so we decided to park here at the Henderson mine. This added another .5 mile to our hike. This hike is located from I-70 through the town of Empire on Rt 40. Turn right at Co rd 202. You can see how deep the snow was already. There are no restrooms at the trailhead.

Here is the actual trailhead for Butler Gulch. Once you get up here, you are protected from the wind. We wore all our layers and never took any off. 

After a little way you will come to a gate. to the right is a hill some of us slid down. The elevation we started at was 10,100. Total gain was 1,155 ft. We went 2.25 miles and then turned around. Total to the top of the continental divide would be 2.25 miles if you started at the actual trailhead.

There was so much snow. We took a couple off shoots through the trees. It was magical!

We pulled up Ed after he slid down the hill.

The pine cones on the tree.

At the end of the hike we felt we were in a snow globe. After reading up on this hike, there are supposed to be tons of wildflowers here and a nice river.  Ill have to come back again in July after the snow melts in the summer.