New York Creek Trail runs 4.1 miles from Lincoln Creek Road to the Continental Divide in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. It continues over a 12,273' pass and splits to the Goodwin-Greene Hut (west), Bowman Creek Trail (south) and Ptarmigan Lake (southeast).This lightly used trail follows New York Creek through attractive forests and meadows into a large alpine basin below Difficult Peak (12,925') and winds steeply up to the Divide with exceptional views across three Wilderness Areas.

The New York Creek Trail continues south over the Continental Divide into the Bowman Creek basin

Brooklyn Gulch originates below the Divide and is a major tributary of New York Creek

The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness covers approximately 40 miles of the Continental Divide

Elk and mountain goats create well-defined tracks in the tundra that can easily be confused for the main trail

The Alpine Forget-Me-Not is a member of the borage family that grows well in thin, depleted soils of the tundra fellfield

Oxygen percentage is the same at high elevation and sea level (21%); the problem for people is that there are many fewer molecules of everything at high elevation, including oxygen

Plants of the tundra may have dense hairs on stems and leaves for wind protection, or red pigments that can convert sunlight into heat

At 2.25 miles the trail crosses the valley and turns up long intervals of meadow and patchy forest before clearing treeline

Many sections of the Continental Divide exhibit the same pattern of steep east-facing slopes and gently sloping west-facing slopes

Moss campion is a tundra cushion plant that grows in small mounds with flower buds hidden between the leaves until blooming for just a few weeks each year

The Continental Divide Trail runs from Canada to Mexico through 25 National Forests, 21 Wilderness Areas, 3 National Parks, 1 National Monument, 8 BLM Resource Areas and through MT, ID, WY, CO and NM

When blood stops flowing to antlers in late summer, they mineralize and harden and the velvet falls or is rubbed off

The word tundra comes from the Finnish word 'tunturia' which means treeless land

The New York Creek Trail splits over the Divide to Goodwin-Greene Hut (west), Bowman Creek Trail (south) and Ptarmigan Lake (southeast)

The trail runs through a short section of verdant, moss draped forests before emerging in open meadows and clearing treeline