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Come along on this short, fun, and extremely kid-friendly hike!
The entire Mad Creek Trail is about 9 miles long, but the Mad Creek Barn is about 1.8 miles from the trailhead, and we made that our destination for a this low-key hike.
Location & Parking
This trailhead is well-marked on maps. It’s just a few miles outside of Steamboat Springs, CO with a large and easy to access parking lot. The lot was fairly empty on an early November weekend when we visited, but this is the sort of hike that seems like it would attract a lot of visitors during peak season, so I could see the parking lot filling up then.
The Trail
As I mentioned, we only covered a small portion of the trail that spans the area from the trailhead to the barn. In our opinion, this was such a nice and easy hike to do with kids. There’s a gradual 300ft altitude gain in total, with a little bit of up and down, but nothing too steep.
For most of the hike, the trail runs parallel to the hillside, so you do have a fairly steep drop-off on one side. Fortunately, the trail is wide enough that this doesn’t seem precarious.
The hardest element to deal with is the sun exposure. Except for a few spans of tree cover, most of the the trail is exposed to the sun, and that can be brutal on clear Colorado days. Since we hiked in the fall, the cool temps helped to counteract the heat of the sun, but I’d be prepared with hats and sunscreen if hiking this trail during the summer.
The Barn
This trail is located in the Routt National Forest, and the barn property itself makes for a nice history lesson for kids.
Construction of the barn and accompanying buildings was started in 1904 as part of a homestead claim by James Ratliff. He was harvesting trees from the nearby forest, but in 1905 those forests become part of the Routt National Forest, and Ratliff now needed a permit for harvesting. Ratliff protested the need for permits, but in a funny twist of fate, he was appointed the forest service’s first forest guard for this area in 1906.
After understanding the mission of the Forest Service, Ratliff supported the conservation of federal lands and made a number of regulatory changes to improve conservation measures in this area.
Ratliff left Colorado for Utah in 1914. His property remained in private hands until 1979 when it was purchased by the Forest Service. In 2000 the barn was restored through a joint effort between the local community, state, and federal government.
Today, the barn is open for hikers to explore. As you can see from these photos, you can enter the barn, peak out the windows, climb into the hay loft, etc. It was so nice to be there without any other hikers.
Our boys were thrilled to be able to explore the barn! They went up and down the hayloft ladder numerous times, explored holes in the siding that they are certain are bullet holes, and they loved opening and closing the many doors. I just stood in the barn and took deep breaths smelling the the musty wood.
I can’t think of another hike where we were arrived at a historical structure and were free to explore. This was such a magical adventure for the boys. They’ve asked to go back numerous times, which we definitely will!
Knowing the story of Ratliff and having the chance to appreciate his barn some 100+ years after he built it, I’m thankful for the forward-thinking individuals that came before us. The men and women who understood the value of open public lands, and worked to conserve them.