Elwood Cabin

The Elwood Cabin stands on a knoll that projects into a large open park, in a saddle of the San Juan Mountains. It is a one-room log building at an elevation of 11,000 feet. A shed for firewood adjoins it, and an outdoor vault toilet stands nearby. Elk and deer come into the meadows beside it, and bear, marmot, and chipmunks also live in the area. The Recreation.gov listing says that at this height light plays differently on the landscape, and that on clear cold evenings stars blanket the sky. In summer the meadows fill with wildflowers and the afternoons bring thunderstorms.

Four bunks and a wood stove

Inside are two bunk beds, each with a single bed on top and another below, for four people at most. A wood stove gives heat. Propane runs the lights and a cooking stove. There is a table with chairs, cooking utensils, pots and pans, and a fire extinguisher. There is no water at the site. Guests carry in what they need for cooking, cleaning, and washing, along with their own food, sleeping bags, linens, matches, toilet paper, and garbage bags. The door opens with a combination lock, and the Conejos Peak Ranger District gives out the combination by phone a week before a stay. Bears are in the area, so nothing is left outside, and all food and garbage go out with the guests.

The road up Park Creek

From Del Norte, US 160 runs west to South Fork and continues 8 miles to Park Creek Road. From Pagosa Springs it climbs east over Wolf Creek Pass and runs 9 miles beyond the top. Park Creek Road goes 15 miles to Summitville Road, and the cabin sits about 2 miles farther on FSR 380, on the left. A second approach follows FSR 380 about 8 miles from its junction with FSR 250 in the Alamosa Canyon. In summer, the Forest Service says, just about any vehicle will make it, though the dirt roads get slick when wet.

Around the cabin, anglers fish Iron Creek and Treasure Creek for wild trout. Platoro Reservoir, which feeds the Conejos River, holds trout and salmon. The country takes in parts of the Rio Grande and San Juan National Forests and the South San Juan Wilderness, and there are old mining sites around Summitville. Fall brings color that the Forest Service page calls “a sight to see.”

In ten feet of snow

Winter can lay as much as ten feet of snow around the cabin, and cars generally cannot reach it then. The sources give different distances for the trip in. The Forest Service puts it at about 17 miles from Highway 160 on FSR 380, also called Park Creek Road, with a cleared parking lot about a mile up from the highway. Recreation.gov calls it a 22-mile trip by snowmobile, ski, or snowshoe. Later in the season the EPA plows the road to Summitville.

The last stretch follows the unplowed part of Forest Road 380 from the junction. It heads southeast, then bends south-southwest, and the cabin comes into view below the road on its knoll. Recreation.gov calls the 2-mile ski generally easy, with 400 feet of elevation gain, and allows an hour and a half to two hours or more depending on the snow. From late spring possibly into June, the plowed road may end about two miles short of the cabin, and snow berms can block vehicles for the last mile or more. Avalanche danger depends on the season and conditions. Guests are told to bring avalanche equipment and enough food for at least 48 hours.

A line shack for the telephone crews

Gold was first found at Summitville in 1870. In 1911 the Mountain States Telephone Company built the cabin as a “line shack” for crews maintaining the transcontinental telephone line. From 1950 until 1962 it served as a Forest Service station, housing employees who worked on projects in the area. Mining at Summitville went on until the early 1990s, when contaminants leaked off-site into the local watershed and the government forced the operation to shut down. A water treatment plant now stands at the ghost town as part of a federal clean-up program. The telephone line has been abandoned, and remnants of it are still found along Iron Creek, southeast of the cabin.