I posted on here several months ago regarding backpacking for the first time with my kids and wife (kids both under 10). We had selected a route I was familiar with near Valecito Reservoir. Well, the San Juan National Forest just went into a burn ban. Sitting around a camp fire at night after a long day of hiking is one of the most enjoyable parts of backbacking for me and I know it will be important for a successful trip with the kids.

Rio Grande National Forest is not under a ban yet. I'm familiar with the area around Rio Grande Reservoir, but since we will be based out of Pagosa and Durango while we are up there I would prefer to keep it more around South Fork or closer.

Any suggestions on a good trail with minimum elevation gain that would be good for 3 days/2 nights in that area?

Love the area, but most of my exploring was done on 4 wheels.

South San Juan Wilderness - Crater Lake.

Starts quite high, crosses CDT, high mountain lake surrounded by 12,000 foot peaks nearly entirely. Bounce back if youd like to discuss the route.

Thanks for the suggestion. I went ahead and bought the map for the South San Juan Wilderness Area and have been poring over it. Unfortunately, it looks like crater lake is just on the pacific side of the divide putting in in san juan national forest and subject to fire ban. Pretty bummed about this.

I'm eying the Elk Creek drainage right now in the rio grande national forest side. Cons are have to drive back through Chama to get there (it is about an 1:15 the wrong direction), seems to be pretty popular, and some trip reports indicate cows in the meadows and lots of horse/cow poop on the trail. Pros are good fishing, relatively flat trail for colorado, and no burn ban.

Anyone been on that trail before?

You might look at taking the CDT from Lobo overlook at Wolf Creek pass. Advantage is you start high. There are lots of options from there.
Its hard to find a good loop route. I struggled with that when we had little kids. They were just fine hiking a couple of miles and finding a nice place to camp and play.
Its been raining nearly every afternoon for the past week here near Creede so I can't imagine a fire ban being necessary. I suggest bringing a big lightweight tarp. Kelty makes a good one 12x12 or so.
Also download COTREX it has all the trails. Better than my Garmin GPS.

https://trails.colorado.gov/

Bump to see any feedback on elk creek.