The Spruce Creek Trail climbs about 3.4 miles one way, gaining roughly 1,700 feet through lodgepole, spruce, and fir forest to Lower Mohawk Lake at about 11,375 feet, then a steep half mile more to Upper Mohawk Lake near 11,900 feet beneath Mt. Helen and the southern Tenmile Range. Above the upper lake, a string of unnamed tarns continues toward the Continental Divide. Marmots, pikas, and ptarmigan are regulars above treeline.

This is also Breckenridge's classic mining-history hike. The route passes the Mayflower townsite cabins and some of the best-preserved mining structures in Summit County — an intact mill building and aerial tramway remnants from the 1880s gold era. They're protected cultural resources, so look but don't climb or collect.

The trailhead lot on Spruce Creek Road (1.2 miles of good dirt road off CO-9, 2.1 miles south of Boreas Pass Road) fills by early morning on summer weekends; arrive before 8am. High-clearance vehicles can shorten the hike via the upper 4WD road to the Mayflower Lakes turnoff. Snow covers the upper basin into early July.