Tons of water crashed over the lip of Copeland Falls in Wild Basin.
More than enough, you would think, to crush the small gray bird weighing only a few ounces who bobbed up and down on a rock in the midst of the spray. Yet this American dipper posed only briefly before flying back to its mossy nest behind the waterfall. Famous for walking underwater to find bugbits for dinner, dippers — also known as water ouzels — raise their babies behind the falls.
The dipper was not the only wonder we witnessed on our waterfall walk. A kaleidoscope (collective noun for butterflies) of little blue butterflies puddled in the mineral-rich mud nearby, and yellow swallowtails cruised the creek corridor. A golden-mantled ground squirrel scurried about the rocks. And gardens of larkspurs, blue penstemons and golden banners flourished in the mist, defying our current drought.
One advantage of slowing down in old age is that you take time to savor the moment and appreciate the minutiae. Along the 0.3-mile walk from the parking lot we stopped to listen to ruby-crowned kinglets and remembered the hermit thrush who built a nest here last year. We found coralroot orchids and remembered the hundreds of fairy slipper orchids that have crowded the woods in the past. We watched a tiny baby mouse try to find a hole and rejoiced (along with Walt Whitman) that a mouse is miracle enough.
When we were younger, we charged on up the trail — possibly the best waterfall trail in the county — often bypassing Copeland Falls in our hurry to get to the more dramatic sights above. Calypso Cascade is 1.8 miles from the parking lot; Ouzel Falls (where we have found rare brownie lady’s slippers), 2.7 miles; and Ouzel Lake, 4.9 miles. Still more lakes lie even higher.
Botanist William Cooper named these falls and many other Wild Basin features when he mapped the area in 1911 and sold his map for only 15 cents. He named Copeland Falls for John B. Copeland, a local pioneer and farmer. Calypso Cascade, he named for Calypso bulbosa orchids or fairy slippers once abundant along the trail. And Ousel (the word Shakespeare used) is derived from the Old English word osle, meaning a black bird.
There’s so much to see on the short road from the entry station to the parking lot that we drive slowly (pulling over for faster cars). Last year, we watched a gamboling fawn in a meadow while its mom nursed a second fawn. We have watched red-naped sapsuckers, red-breasted nuthatches and western tanagers from a picnic table where we stop for lunch. And moose have occasionally appeared. This year’s moose was a “ghost moose,” so called because it had scratched off most of the dark outer hairs in an effort to relieve the itching caused by ticks.
That leads to a warning: Do a tick check when you get home, as the little buggers are abundant this year.
Colorado’s waterfalls are at their thunderous, tumultuous best in June when the snow melt sends torrents of water down from the mountains. North St. Vrain Creek, which feeds the waterfalls along this trail, is now so wild it looks like one continuous waterfall. So now is the time to go.
The trail begins at the south end of the Wild Basin Ranger Station parking lot and crosses several small streamlets as it ascends gently to Copeland Falls. The connecting trails to the falls are a bit steeper and may require some scrambling in a few spots.
To reach Wild Basin in Rocky Mountain National Park, take U.S. 36 north from Boulder to Lyons. Turn left onto South St. Vrain Canyon Road (Colorado 7) and continue to the Wild Basin turnoff near Allenspark. Turn west onto a road that dead-ends in 2.3 miles at the parking lot.
Early morning is the best time to see wildlife, and if you arrive at the entry station before 9 a.m., you don’t need a reservation. Whenever the station is open, however, you need to pay an entrance fee or show a park pass. Between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. you need a timed entry permit available at
Ruth Carol and Glenn Cushman are the authors of Boulder Hiking Trails, available on Amazon.
