Location: Roosevelt National Forest, just above Young Gulch
Access: From Ted's Place on Hwy 287 take Hwy 14 west about 13 miles to the parking area on the south side of road (careful: it's easy to miss) just past the Ansel Watrous Campground.
Trail: This peak lies a short distance south of the popular Young Gulch trail. There’s no trail to the summit, but the route is short and not difficult. Essentially this hike is mostly a hike of Youngs Gulch with a short detour out of the canyon to the summit. One way distance from the Young Gulch TH is about 4.5 miles with 1,685’ elevation gain. 
Summit: UTM NAD83 z13 469756e 4500217n
Map: USGS Poudre Park quad
Fees: None
Dogs: Voice control
Weather: Current and recent conditions     Local forecast    Snow persists in the shaded canyon bottom well into spring.

It’s cool in the shade, but the bright sun warms me up in no time as I follow Makenzie and Henry up the ridgeline towards Peak 7890 just above Young Gulch. Seems like a nice hike for a warm spring day. The initial long stretch of open grassy slope is easy-going, with only thin, isolated patches of snow, but when we hit the trees after the first saddle, the snow is deep and crusted over, and it’s miserable going, especially with all the unseen downed timber lurking beneath the snow to grab my boots and trip me up. I ascend through this deep snow less than 50 meters before turning back and dropping down the long slope back in to Young Gulch. 

We head up the familiar canyon, and after about 2 miles we are in some fairly deep snow on the trail. The stream is largely frozen-over, but the unmistakable burbling of moving water echoes from beneath the blue ice. The canyon curls to the west. I watch my topo map, and at what seems like a reasonable spot, we leave the trail and head north, up a dry south-facing slope of grass, juniper and occasional ponderosa pine trees towards the rocky summit of Peak 7515. Upon reaching the summit, I am really not sure where it is: there are several likely suspects within a 50-meter radius. Not being pressed for time, we explore them all, and I find the southernmost point to afford the nicest view of Young Gulch below and Mt Ethel across the gulf…still waiting to be climbed. Someday soon, perhaps. 

This hike is significant because, though I of course don’t consider it at the time, this entire landscape was engulfed in the flames of the High Park Fire which lightning ignited almost exactly 3 months later. The High Park Fire became the 2nd-largest wildfire in Colorado history, burning over 87,000 acres of some of the prettiest terrain in Colorado. Change and renewal come to the forest whether we like it or not.