Lumpy Ridge, hike to Gem Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park.

Park History
Lumpy Ridge rises above Estes Park on the North side of the town. It is part of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), but there is no fee to hike here. Lumpy Ridge has a large raptor habitat, and the birds live in the rocks and cliffs on the ridge. One important point to remember is that in 2007 the Twin Owls Trail head was relocated south and is now renamed Lumpy Ridge Trail head. It encompasses the Gem Lake Trail, Twin Owl Loop and all the Lumpy Ridge Climbing destinations. It now has a larger parking lot and bathrooms. Some of the newer maps do not reference this change, if you are seeking to hike Gem Lake or Twin Owl trails, this is where you start.

Mountain Biking at Centennial Cone Park

Last weekend Josh and I decided to go mountain biking. This is something we don't do very often because it is so much harder to take the dogs; and because I am not the most adventurous mountain biker and it's more fun for my hubby to go with the boys. I would prefer rolling hills to steep rocky trails for my biking experience, but after hiking at Centennial Cone Park, I knew I had to go back and try it on the bike.

Centennial Cone Park, Jefferson County Open Space, Colorado

Park History
The Centennial Cone Park is north of Clear Creek Canyon and it sits on top of the foothills outside of Golden Gate Canyon. It was acquired by voter approval in 1999 to be preserved as Open Space land. The park is created to sustain the elk and mountain lion habitat in the area. You will see many old ranches and homesteads throughout the property which were purchased to preserve the land in the 90's. Now this park has over 3,000 acres of land and is one of the largest Open Space Parks in the Jefferson County System.

Deer Creek Canyon Park, Jefferson County, Colorado

History of the Park
In the late 1800's Deer Creek Canyon was once a homestead for John Williamson from Plymouth England; as well as a campground for Ute and Arapahoe tribes. Deer Creek Canyon was also a hideout for Jesse James and other villains with it's large scrub oak habitat, creeks and fertile grounds it was a great place to hide out. The Plymouth Creek Trail has been a passage way into the mountains since the 1900s. In 1991 Jefferson County purchased the land and named it Deer Creek Canyon Park and it became part of the Jefferson County Open Space.

Getting There
To get to the park from the metro area, take C-470 and exit at Kipling Street. Go west onto W. Ute Avenue, then west or right onto Deer Creek Canyon Road. The streets are well marked with the signature brown Open Space signs at each turn.
Follow Deer Creek Canyon Road into the canyon for a few miles, you will pass South Valley Open Space on your right (which is another good hike deserving of a blog post soon) and continue on Deer Creek Road until you see the Open Space Sign to turn LEFT onto Grizzly Drive.

Grizzly Drive will take you up the mountain through a neighborhood of huge houses and beautiful scenery! Each time we have driven up this road we have come across an animal, most recently a deer and her fawns, we have also seen coyote, fox and turkeys. Continue up Grizzly drive and turn Right into Deer Creek Canyon, you will see the sign above on your right.

The Park
As you drive into the Deer Creek parking lot you will almost always notice that it is busy!

Mt. Falcon EAST Entrance, Morrison Colorado

The East Entrance of Mt. Falcon Park is south of Morrison, and it's a close hike in proximity to the city, with incredible city and mountain views.
Mount Falcon Park East is located South of Morrison on Highway 8. Driving west through the town of Morrison, turn left or South on Highway 8; next go .8 of a mile to Forest Ave. This is an easy road to miss, if you go more than 1 mile after turning on Hwy 8, you have gone too far. Shortly after turning on Forest Avenue, you make a right or North turn onto Vine St. This dead ends into the park.

One of the main trails in the park is the Castle Trail, which used to be a narrow road that once carried Stanley Steamer automobiles in the 1800s. The Castle Trail starts at the East entrance of the park and provides hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders access all the way up the mountain to the Mr. Falcon Park West Access (which can be reached via 285 and Parmalee Gulch Road). There are also picnic tables for those who just want to enjoy a picnic in the area with great views!

The Castle trail starts by winding through gullies and plains then starts up Mt. Falcon with a pretty steep incline.

Camping & other activities outside of Leadville, CO, Collegiate Peaks Wilderness

Over the weekend of September 5th; Josh, Rock and I decided we needed to get in another weekend of camping and hiking before it got too cold. We choose the Leadville area in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness which is part of the San Isabel National Forest on County Road 390. (called Chaffe County Road 390 or Clear Creek Canyon Road) We had been planning to hike Mt. Belford one of Colorado's 14ers, and this road was the access road to the trail.

Mt. Belford, 14,197 feet; Leadville Colorado

On Saturday September 5th, Labor Day weekend, Josh, Rock and I hiked Mt. Belford which is outside of Leadville, Colorado in the Collegiate Peak Wilderness that is part of the San Isabel National Forest. This was our first fourteener (peak over 14,000 feet) of the 2009 season, and the 8th that we have hiked so far in Colorado. Mt. Belford proved to be one of the most beautiful and most difficult hikes that we have ever done!

Getting there:
We woke up at 4:00am Saturday morning and hoped to be on the road by 4:30. We needed to drive out to the area to get a campsite and set up our tent before we went to the trail-head for the day. Being Labor Day weekend, we figured we'd get a better campsite in the morning to ensure we'd get a good site, also if there was bad weather when we were done with the hike we would have shelter already to sleep in while it rained.

Cold Springs Campground outside Blackhawk

Cold Springs Campground, July 2009

Cold Springs Campground is located approximately five miles north of the town of Blackhawk on Highway 119 at an elevation of 9,200 feet. The campground has 38 sites which are well spaced among pine and aspen trees offering fair to good amount of privacy between sites, with some offering a lot of seclusion. The sites can accommodate both RV and tent campers; there are even some sites near the back of the campground where the RV can park alongside the road. The campground is located high at the top of a mountain and many of the campsites have incredibly scenic views of the surrounding mountain peaks. The grounds are well maintained with pit toilets, fire rings, picnic tables, trash service and drinking water. It also has a playground, a scenic vista viewpoint a short hike up a mountain, and access to a trail at the back of the campground which continued on for miles and may meet up with the Fairburn Mountain trails.

The friendly camp host mentioned that the scenic viewpoint was worth the short steep hike up to the top of a rocky mountain peak. From there you have 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains and the continental divide. For the avid hiker, there is an old two track trail which starts near the back of the campground by campsites #22-24 and continues on for miles. I was able to hike on the trail for at least an hour which continues east down the mountain and past a very old campground and other old buildings; the trail continued on farther than I had time to hike and probably connects to the Fairburn Mountain Trail.

The only drawback of the campground is that it is located immediately off Highway 119, and the road noise can be heard throughout the campground all night long. Also, due to the proximity to Blackhawk, Central City and Golden Gate Canyon State Park, the campground is very crowded on the weekends. When I camped here on a Sunday night in the summer, well over half of the sites were already reserved for the following weekend, some even two weekends. The camp host said that this is common throughout the summer, but you can practically have your choice of sites during the week.

Price: Campground Cost as of July, 2009. $16 per night

Directions: From Blackhawk go north on highway 119 for approximately 5 miles, the campground is on your left at the top of the mountain before the entrance Golden Gate Canyon State Park. You can also reach 119 from I-70 at exit 244.

Trails in Clear Creek Canyon

Clear Creek Canyon is west of Golden on 6th Ave towards the town of Blackhawk Colorado. The Canyon is full of incredible scenery; the winding Clear Creek river following the road, lots of rock faces for climbing, and now lots of trails!
Recently a bridge has been built crossing Clear Creek just west of Golden about 1 mile into the canyon on 6th Ave. You can see a small parking lot, always full with several cars, on the south side of the street. There is parking there and you can walk down to the river to cross the bridge which connects you to many miles of trails winding through Clear Creek Canyon. Additionally, farther up the canyon about 1 more mile there is a trail which is currently being constructed and will open October 1, 2009. There you can find a map which shows the location of several other trails in the canyon. After checking out the map, we noticed a trail about 2 miles farther up 6th Avenue just past mile marker 268.
You will see a parking lot on the north side of the street (opposite side of the river) that is lined with several red rocks; park there and you will notice a small trail to the west. It was this trail that I hiked Monday August 24th with Josh and Rock.
The only factor that shows you this is open space land is a gate just past the parking lot with the brown "open space" sign on the gate.
We started up the hike and after about 100 yards of hiking we stopped to adjust our stuff, and I happened to spot several mountain goats about 200 yards away, high up on the rocks! Very cool!
The trail was visibly overgrown and you could tell right away it was not used very much. (probably due to the lack of a sign in the area noting the trailhead). At one point early on in the trail there are overgrown bushes and the trail goes around them. It is easy to miss, and we nearly turned back, thinking the trail had dead ended, but I wanted to check and thankfully the trail continued past the trees and bushes.
Right away, you can tell that the trail is going to go UP! There are no switchbacks here! Just hiking pretty much straight up to the top of the mountain ahead of you. After just a few moments of hiking, you are able to see great views of the winding canyon and river below you.
The trail is very steep as it nears the top and this is definitely not a trail for someone who is afraid of heights! The higher you hike, the better the views get, but the steeper the trail gets, at one point I was using my hands on the ground just to keep balance!
You can see to the left a rough drawing of how the trail goes up the mountain. Once you reach the ridge at the top you are able to see views for miles and miles! Sixth Ave is in view on both sides of the mountain, as is Clear Creek Canyon, there are also cairns marking the top of the saddle in the mountain.
Cairns, for those who don't know are (for this purpose) piles of rocks which are erected to show hikers they are on the proper trail or are taking the proper route. You find them on mountains without maps, and you most often find them on large mountains and 14ers in Colorado.


You can see this photo shows the cairns (rock piles) -----> This is on the saddle of the mountain.

Once at the top of the saddle, you can choose to go either way to further your hike. We chose to go west little farther up the mountain, and we eyed the thunderstorm rolling in as well. After another 10 minutes of hiking we reached another rock formation which was a great lookout point. It was at this time the wind picked up and the sky turned a little more black than you'd want it to be if you were hiking on the top of a mountain. So we decided to turn back. There were definitely many more miles of trails that we could have hiked and I look forward to going back very soon!
The hike down always proves to be difficult when the mountain is so steep, and there were plenty of slides and slipped between Josh and I. Of course, Rock our dog, was fine. There were lots of wildflowers that were starting to wilt in the late summer, and the weeds were very tall and turning brown with the upcoming change of season. This hike would be awesome in the spring when all the flowers are in bloom!

We made it back to the car shortly after and I guessed the hike to the top of the saddle was 1.5 miles one way, and we hiked farther up than that. We did stop at the top for some views and to eat an apple, plus all the photos that I take along the way (see below for slideshow), so the hike took us about 2 hours. However, it could have been done in less time.
We did see one other hiker out on this trail, which was surprising, but it shows that we are not the only ones who found this hikers paradise so nearby Golden.

(Go to the intersection of 58th ave and 6th ave, and go west on 6th into the canyon)

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Mount Herman, Monument Colorado

Saturday, August 21st Josh, Rock and I hiked Mount Herman which is located in Monument Colorado. Monument is just northwest of Colorado Springs off I-25. One of our good friends is moving out of the Springs to California and we went down to visit him and stopped to hike along the way. I had never hiked in Monument before, or anywhere near this area actually, and had a terrible time finding a place to hike in the area. I was googling "hiking in Colorado Springs" and all I really came up with was the trails.com website. Which is ok for pinpointing a hike, but that website only gives you a little bit of information before you have to sign up. I checked El Paso County's website, and didn't find much in the way of trails either! I managed to google map some directions to the hike; From I-25 exit 161 and go WEST on Second Street, then you will travel through the town of Monument to Mitchell Ave. (Note* There is a park with bathrooms right BEFORE the train tracks and Mitchell Ave, stop here if you need to go!!). You will go South or Left on Mitchell Ave for a little over .5 of a mile, then you will turn right or west on Mt. Herman Road, you will see this sign ---->
We traveled on Mt. Herman Road for about a mile and a half before we saw the Mount Herman Trailhead sign (Above) on our left. We actually missed the turn, we had thought the trailhead was further up the mountain, we did a U-turn and parked in the trailhead lot.
I noticed right away, there are no trail maps, and there is no bathroom, even at this relatively large and full parking lot. I was very surprised not to see both the maps or port-o-pot, I was also shocked at the amount of trash tossed on the ground as well!
In the little information that I did find about Mt. Herman online, I saw that it was supposed to be 2 miles round trip to the top and back. I felt right away that we were way to far to be 2 miles away. I think that there might be another trailhead farther up Mt. Herman Road, but we decided to hike where we were at, just to check it out. Incidentally, when I went to write this blog, I found another blogger with a post about Mt. Herman. Here is the link. I think that I WAS too far to the east, and there is another trailhead farther up to complete the summit....so that's left for another day :)
After about 50 yards into the hike (with no map) we were faced with a choice to either go straight, right or left. We went straight down the mountain, my goal was to keep hiking toward Mt. Herman in the distance and see how close we can get in the time we had!

<---- You can see here, Mount Herman is the round topped peak in the distance. We continued to hike towards the mountain, and were faced with multiple trail choices along the way. We did come across the first dirt road within about 30 minutes of the hike....we walked down the road only a few yards and found the trail again and continued to walk through the beautiful fields full of wildflowers in bloom even this late in August. We noticed right away there are NO trail signs along the way at all, so keep an eye out as to where you are going :) Though it was pretty easy to keep your bearings.
The beautiful trails took us through lush trees and fields full of wildflowers it made me wish that I was closer to the Springs to enjoy these awesomely large mountains and lushness compared to Denver :) In the distance we began to see a huge White Rock sticking out against the mountain. It looked really cool, and all of the trails seemed to head right towards it! I love Colorado's unique rock formations, it shows what unique geology exists in this area.

We hiked up to the rock, which is much bigger than the pics show, and rested in the shade while we ate some lunch. I guessed that it was about 1.75 miles from the trailhead to the white rock formation. It was a very hot day, and we were hiking right about 12 noon, so the sun was pretty unrelenting. I walked around the rock and noticed a fairly large pond of dirty water, at first I thought it was a mirage. haha. It didn't take long before my dog Rock found it, and she was terribly hot and swam in the gross stuff. But she seemed cooler.....
After we past the rock, we continued to head up Mount Herman. It was at this point that the trail gets much steeper, rockier, and you can tell you are starting to hike up a mountain. We were still pretty far from the top at this point, but it felt like we were finally getting somewhere! I could look behind us and see views of the city and even I-25 way out in the distance. There were more trees in this part of the hike and it was cooler in the shade.
As we continued up the mountain for a little over a half mile, we began to hear the road above us. Eventually we came out to a point where we could either go out to the road, or continue hiking south (not west, up the mountain). We walked a little ways south, and it provided us with some great views...but eventually abandoned that route to continue up the mountain, even though we had to deal with the road.
Once up to the road, there was no obvious trail to pick up. We walked in both directions quite a ways, and didnt find any connecting trail. We did see a "pikes peak national forest map" sign, which said the map was 1000 feet ahead. We hiked up the road to the sign, at least along the way were good views to the east, while many noisy dirtbikers drove past us. Unfortunately, when we got to the sign it showed many things, but no hikes in the area?? It was at that point we considered going back. It was a hot day, we had no idea how to hike to the top of Mt. Herman and we still needed to go help our friend in the Springs. We decided to head back and along the way we would take some of the other multiple trails in route to the car.
We had to hike the half mile back to the white rock and then chose to take a trail to the north, which was a raised trail and provided lots of great views!
It was about this time when I noticed a small pond ahead of us (and to think we let Rock swim in a nasty mud pit!) with a cute little bench to sit on and enjoy the views! What a beautiful state we live in! I was so hot, I would have absolutely swam in the pond if I had a bathing suit...but I did not. Josh threw Rock into the water (did I mention she is scared of water) but she was so hot it was good for her!

As we hiked back we continued to take different trails and wound through the forests and fields. I figured that any of the trails we took would lead us back to the car and was glad that proved to be true.
All in all we hiked about 4 miles, and it took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Though we did stop along the way quite a bit, so it could have been done in much less time. It was a beautiful hike, but I would have really liked to make it to the top of Mount Herman. I guess it will be left for another day...
Trail maps would have been really helpful for this hike and I would appreciate any comments regarding more information about the hike!! I hope to go back and get better information and update this blog.
Park Quick Facts: (rated 1 - 3) To see the Criteria click here
Difficulty - (2) dirt trails, some slippery, nothing too terrible
Distance (driving) - (2) within 1 hour from my house near the Mills Mall
Crowded (2) - This trail was not very crowded even on Saturday, but we did pass several hikers along the way.
Amount of Trails (2)- There are at least 4 miles of trails, and they probably connect to other trails which are not yet known to me.
Length of time - Our hike was 2 hours 15 minutes, you could hike more or less very easily with the amount of trails in this area.
For the dog lover -I saw lots of dogs offleash and no ranger, with 1 nice pond to swim in :)
Bathrooms? There are NO restrooms and the closes ones that I saw were outside of town near the turn onto Mitchell street, port o johns in a park :( stinky!

(you can click on map, zoom in and out, and get directions to Mt. Herman)

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