Just a little way north and east of Ridgeway Colorado, after the Owl Creek Trail, you will find that the Silver Jack Reservoir trail is a fantastic way to experience Colorado's high forest, Chapparal, and High desert terrain types. If you are looking for a great place to look at mature Spruce, Aspen, and Box Alder trees, lots of good camping opportunities and plentiful stream or lake fishing, this is the right trail for you. You start out at 10,000 feet high on a Mountain pass and descend through the life zones that change during your 3,000 descent to the high desert. For a long part of the road, you parallel the Cimarron River. The views of the sawtoothed Rocky Mountains certainly do not disappoint.
In fact, this whole area is peppered with streams, lakes and trails.
You'll experience narrow shelf roads, limited switchbacks, and some very easy scenic driving. Camping is plentiful along bubbling creeks, under shady trees, and along the roadside dispersed areas. It's a short hop on US Highway 50 back to Montrose, Colorado from the trail's end.