b.reelz,
If you drive west on U.S. 24 out of Lake George for about one mile you come to a paved county highway that only turns right. This right turn is after you drive over the S. Platte. When you hit the private property, you were in Happy Meadows.
Turn right on this road, the Tarryall Reservoir Road, then drive about one more mile to another right turn only (you can't miss it) into Happy Meadows. The Platte meanders through Happy Meadows for about .5 mile. Happy Meadows is heavily stocked but suffers from high water during runoff and there is camping. At the end of the public access in Happy Canyon is a gate. Beyond this gate is a private fishing/camping type club that looks very expensive. I don't recall the name of this area. The private area does not go back very far down the Platte. I don't think this private area has a fish hatchery like the Wigwam club so I believe they pay for stocked fish.
Last summer, someone told me to park near the gate and walk up over the hill to the left of the gate staying just outside private property then head down to the Platte. I've not done this so I can't tell you about the fishing or how far it is. You can determine private/public land by searching the CPW interactive map site.
Until the Hayman fire, there were two main ways to access the river farther downstream from the private club but both have been closed because of the fire. One access is on the east side of the river off Teller County road 67 at a point between Deckers and Woodland Park where the West Creek community is located. More on this in a minute.
The other access point is from Pike National Forest Service road 211. If you drive to the parking area for access to the Gil Trail into lower Cheesman Canyon and instead of stopping there, turn right, a short distance beyond the parking area onto FS road 211. Road 211 is access to the upper parking area for upper Cheesman Canyon. Just before the parking area, road 211 heads west. Go west, young man. After about 20 miles, this road intersects with the Tarryall Road but you don't go this far for the other closed access point. You can drive this road in a Volkswagon.
Drive about 7 miles on 211, past Goose Creek Campground until you see a dirt road that turns to the east, maybe southeast. You can drive this road for about 50 or so yards until you come to a gate. This is as far as you can go. Before the fire, you could drive to the river and across it. Wildcat Canyon is the steep canyon you see. Because the canyon is steep and the river is a long distance, you cannot see the river from road 211 but sometimes you can hear it. If you want to fish the river, I suggest walking the closed road from 211. I think we figured it is about three miles to the river. The walk down would be ok but the walk out would be a bear but the road looks good.
I wouldn't try walking to the river from the West Creek side because you must drive a zillion miles to find the closed gate. There are so many roads on this side, it's easy to not find where you want to go.
Before the fire, I did not drive to the river off 211. To be honest with you, I didn't know, until last summer, this is an access point. About 35 years ago, a friend and I did find the access point to the river from West Creek but we could only drive to about .5 miles from the river. We hiked to the river and caught a few 8 or 9 inch rainbows.
Many years ago, one of the outdoor writers, probably Charlie Myers, with one of the local newspapers, did an article about Wildcat Canyon. Because of the information in the article, I decided not to fish Wildcat again. This is because the trout biomass, according to the Division of Wildlife, was very low in the 35-ish pounds of fish per surface acre. In those days, upper Cheesman had around 500 pounds and the Deckers area had about 350 pounds, just to put things into perspective. Whirling disease and the Hayman fire changed the biomass at Deckers and below to double digits. It just ain't the same, I'm sorry to say.
If the bio mass for Wildcat is similar to what it was and for my money, I wouldn't waste my time walking the three miles to the river off 211. I guess if you have a horse, that would get you easy access to Wildcat.
I'm sure you are familiar with some of these directions I've given.
Good luck.
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