Pikes Peak Drive (El Paso County, Colorado)

Originally, I had planned on hiking up one of the 14'ers while on this trip to Colorado, but between time slipping away, potential weather, and lots and lots of beer, I wasn't able to do any major hiking. Luckily, at least one of the 14'ers has a summit that is drive-able.

The winding road up to the summit of Pikes Peak is about nineteen miles each way, and includes some very tight switchbacks. At the tollbooth, the ranger warns that we should have at least a half tank of fuel and to use our lowest gear on the way down. Apparently, lots of people drive up un-prepared. Luckily, the Ford Fusion I'm driving is a hybrid, but I still check the fuel gauge just to be sure.

The drive up offers some majestic views, but other than the slow ascent, is relatively uneventful. It takes about 45-minutes to reach the summit, where a gift shop awaits. More interesting than the gift shop though are the views from 14,115 feet above sea level. This is not the highest I've ever been, but it's close. It's interesting to note the different though. When I hiked up Mt. Whitney, I was struggling to catch my breath, but here and after driving up (as opposed to hiking), I barely feel the altitude at all.

In the distance, smoke rises from a large wild fire. It's a clear day and I can see probably 100 miles or more in every direction. It is a bit cool up here and I throw on a sweatshirt before continuing my exploration. It's somewhat strange to see so many cars and people up here, but it makes sense. It's probably the highest point available to a lot of them.

I snap a few pictures and we had down the mountain, taking it extremely slow on our way down. Accidentally driving off the mountain would not be a fun end the day's adventure.

Cave of the Winds (El Paso County, Colorado)

Caves are always of interest to me. While my last stop was somewhat disappointing, especially after learning that it was a modern re-construction of a cliff dwelling, Cave of the Winds had promise. Interestingly, I had just yesterday been watching episode of South Park where the boys followed Al Gore into this cave in search of the man-bear-pig and became trapped due to a cave in.

While I didn't see any signs of man-bear-pig, former vice-presidents, or cave-ins, the tour itself was very interesting. Apparently, the cave got it's name from a group of boys that discovered it a century-or-so ago. They heard the howling winds blowing through the cave passages and assumed the cave was haunted. The name stuck and has, today, become a popular tourist attraction of the area.

The original entrance to the cave involved descending by rope into a large sink-hole, a second more user-friend passage was created as the cave gained popularity. The man-made tunnel opens up into a large room with a running cave waterfall. The tour takes visitors through a number of narrow and vertically-challenging passages into several small-to-medium sized chambers. It's similar to the many other caves I have visited over the years, but still very interesting.

Manitou Cliff Dwellings (El Paso County, Colorado)

My next stop on this busy day is a the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. I have visited a number of cliff dwellings in the past in Utah, Arizona, and even Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado, but none of them touristy feel as much as this place. Upon further research, I learned that these are not actual Native American constructions are modern re-constructions build from collapsed cliff dwellings a few hundred miles away. That's very disappointing.

Garden of the Gods (El Paso County, Colorado)

About an hour south of Denver, there were a number of sites I wanted to visit on this trip. The first of which was an area called Garden of the Gods, an formation similar to Red Rocks Park. A lavish visitors center offers terrific views of the formation, a movie discussing the formation, as well as trail maps. After departing the visitors center, I followed the trail under the highway and over to the spine-like red sandstone formation.

While Red Rocks is certainly stunning, I think this area is even more beautiful, due simply to the almost gravity defying formations. As I'm trying to fit a lot into the day, I settle on just a short hike that involves taking the Gateway Trail from the visitors center to the formation and then through the "gateway" to circle the inner area known as the Central Garden.

The trails are well maintained and in some places even paved, which is in some ways unfortunate. As I make my way through the crowds, I'm reminded of how oblivious some people can be to those around them. Some groups span the entire path without a thought to others want to pass by them. It seems that "touristy" areas like this are prone to the most thoughtless people. It's one of the reasons, I like getting out into more remote areas. Out in the backcountry, people are conditioned to be aware of their surroundings (less they fall off a cliff or trip over a mountain lion) and are normally much more courteous.

Either way though, I can't blame anyone for wanting to taking in the divinity of this place. While reading about this area prior to my trip, I remember someone mentioning what a great beer garden it would make and seeing as how my primary reason for this trip to Denver is beer-related, I can certainly relate. My hike was right at 1.8 miles and offered some stunning views.

Triceratops Trail (Jefferson County, Colorado)

A few miles up the road from Dinosaur Ridge, another footprint-oriented fossil bed was discovered many years ago when clay was being mined in the area. 68-million years ago, this area was part of a semi-tropical swamp on the shores of the ancient inland sea and dinosaurs such as triceratops, edmontosaurus, and tyrannosaurs roamed the land. As the eons passed, their tracks in the muddy bog were preserved as the mud turned to stone and later, thanks to geologic forces, the stone surface was turned vertically, before being found by humans.

The trail itself is short and sweet. It starts along a bike trail before entering a golf course and weaving around the fairways. There are essentially two sections of interest. The first requires walking down a number of stair-stepped switchbacks into a narrow gulch. The wall eastern wall of this gulch contains three prominent foot prints, one of which may be that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but paleontologists are positive.

Continuing up the ridge, the next section is another long white clay wall, which contains a number of obvious triceratop footprints, along with the fossilized impressions of palm leaves, and ancient bird and mammal footprints. It's quite amazing to seem them so well preserved here. Hopefully, they will remain preserved for many future generations to stare it in awe and wonder.

Dinosaur Ridge Trail (Jefferson County, Colorado)

Just east of Red Rocks Park and running parallel to the mountains, the Dakota Hogback rises up out of the landscape like the plated back of a stegosaurus. Part of this formation is called Dinosaur Ridge and includes some amazing dinosaur tracks of mostly iguanodon-like creatures and theropods. This area was an ancient seabed and during the geologic upheavals of the past eons, the footprints of this giants were trapped in time to be found by the modern inhabitants.

The hike itself starts up a closed road that make its way up the side of the ridge. About two-thirds of the way up, a large section of petrified mud contains hundreds of these tracks. It appears that the caretakers have colored in the tracks with charcoal or some other dark substance to make them stand out more against the white stone. As this is an excellent opportunity for youngsters to be exposed to fossils, it makes sense. 

Just after this giant panel of prints, the trail leaves the road and turns sharply uphill, climbing to the very top of the spine of the Hogback. From there, the trail continues north along the ridge. It offers some great views of Red Rocks Park to the west and while I continue to look for more tracks or other fossils, I find no others. Perhaps they are they and I just missed them, but the ones I was able to see were enough to make the hike worthwhile. In total, I hiked about 3.3 miles. Definitely worth the trip.

Red Rocks - Trading Post Trail (Jefferson County, Colorado)

 

For many years, I have had an item on my bucket list that may seem odd to most. I wanted to see a concert at the Red Rocks Amphitheater just outside Denver, CO. Several years ago, I was in Denver for work and had the opportunity to walk around the amazing outdoor music venue in the sunlight. I could only imagine what it would be to see some of my favorite musicians play here with the lights of the city as a backdrop and the sound waves reverberating off of the giant red sandstone mountains on either side of the venue. For the last few years, I have watched the concert schedule to see if any acts were coming that I would want to see and who's show-dates fit into my schedule. As luck would have it, I was planning a trip to the mile-high-city for the Great American Beer Festival and noticed that Nine Inch Nails was going to be playing Red Rocks the night I intended to fly in. I bought tickets as soon as they went on sale.

Arriving in Denver around lunchtime and being unable to check-in to my hotel for a couple of hours, I decided to scope out the venue and maybe even get a little hiking in. I had planned a few possible trails and sites to visit during this trip and it only made sense to take advantage of the time available.

The Trading Post Trail is a short trail that starts at . . . you guessed it . . . the Trading Post, which functions as a visitors center and gift shop for Red Rocks Park and sits just below the Amphitheater on the red mountain. The trail head south, through and around many of the amazing sandstone formations. It's a short hike of only about 1.5 miles, but it's provides some really nice views of the park and was a nice warm-up in anticipation of this evening's concert. 

Saddlebag Lake and Twenty Lakes Basin (Mono County, California)

Over my years living in Reno, I've visited and hiked in the Mono Basin and in nearby Yosemite National Park many, many times. In fact, those adjacent areas were some of the first I explore after moving to Reno over fifteen years ago. One hike I've always wanted to do, but for whatever reason, just hadn't gotten around to was the loop hike around and and through Saddlebag Lake and the Twenty Lakes Basin. Technically, this hike is outside the national park, but with Yosemite just over one ridge to the west and the sheer amount of granite here, one would never know. With the summer coming to an end and a free weekend day to spare, I decided to finally knock this one off of my bucket list. My friend, Chris, who has been wanting to hike together, agreed to join me for this little adventure.

Leaving Reno about 6:45 and then picking Chris up in Carson City, we were well on our way by 7:40. It's only about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Reno, but we opted to stop for breakfast in Bridgeport. While the food was good, it was waaaaaayyyy overpriced. This isn't yelp and so, I won't name the establishment, but I think you'll agree that $4.99 for a single egg or $11.99 for an omelette with a single add-in seems a bit outrageous. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a nice sit-down breakfast before finishing the drive to the trailhead, though the occasional comment about the prices did resurface from time to time along the hike.

Turning off of US395 onto CA120 at Tioga Pass, and then following the highway along the edge of a deep valley for 15 or so miles, we finally reach the Saddlebag Lake turn-off and the trailhead just a few minutes later. Prior to the winter of 2016/2017, the lodge, located on the southern end of the lake, operated a ferry service from the south to the north end of the medium-sized lake and back, but with the record snow-falls from that winter and the associated damage to the facility, the ferry has been discontinued. And while the ferry is not necessary to complete the loop trail, it does offer a easy solution to what is the most uninteresting part of the hike. Saddlebag Lake sits in a bowl between two small peaks. There is little vegetation, geology, or anything else of much interest, but we'll just have to get in the extra miles today. It's no hardship.

Chris and I talk about our past adventures, politics, and whatever else comes up as we make our way around the western side of the lake. At one point, I notice that he is walking alongside the well-worn trail instead of on it and I politely ask him to return to the worn section. As a Leave No Trace trainer, I can't help myself, but to mention the damage caused by failing to "travel on durable surfaces", when I notice someone not doing it. I know he didn't mean any harm by it and when I bring it up, he quickly returns to the trail and thanks me for feeling comfortable enough to mention it. This, of course, stirs more discussion about protecting the environment, which is always the intention. Like me, Chris, is a great lover of the outdoors and wants to protect it for the generations to come.

Leaving Saddlebag Lake we reach a trail junction and decide that we have veered slightly off-course. We quickly correct ourselves just in time to see the second of the lakes along this trail, Greenstone Lake. From this point on, we encounter one lake after the next. Wasco and Steelhead are the next two. Chris spots a small waterfall on the southern end of Steelhead and we make our way over to it, scrambling over the granite to reach it. It's a nice little tiered waterfall with not much more than a trickle at this time of year, but it makes for some good pictures. Apparently, there are two drainages from this area. The water from Greenstone and Saddlebag Lakes flows south out of the basin and likely, while Steelhead and presumably, most of other lakes flow northeast into Lundy Canyon.

Returning to the main trail, we make our way around the eastern shore of Steelhead before deciding to stop for lunch at a nice shaded area overlooking the lake. While Chris polishes off an apple, I enjoy a cold quinoa salad I had made a few days ago. Though to the trail to this point has not been all that challenging, it's still nice to take a few minutes to relax and just absorb the magnificent beauty all around us. Across the length of the lake, a gorgeous valley comes opens up with North Peak as a backdrop. The majority of this hike is above 10,000 feet, but with both of us avid hikers, we barely notice. 

Our break ends as it begins and we pack up and start back towards the main trail. We next come across Shamrock Lake with it's very interesting islands. The sides of some of the islands are like miniature cliffs and quite striking in some locations, as they rise more than vertically out of the water. Continuing on, we make our way around some granite outcroppings for some panoramic shots, before returning to the trail and hiking around Lake Helen. From Lake Helen, we must ascend a dry wash that is very steep and made up of scree. This is, by far, the most challenging section of this trail, but still very doable. When we reach the top, we begin to see Odell Lake, which I, at first, mistake for the northern end of Saddlebag, but the deep gorge running north out of the lake is a good clue of my mistake. 

As we come across the shallow saddle that is Lundy Pass and walk by Hummingbird Lake, the north end of the larger Saddlebag Lake comes into view. From here, we simply follow the eastern shoreline back to the trailhead. In total, we hiked about 9.2 miles. The weather and conversation were great and I'm very glad Chris decided to join me for this adventure. After returning to the jeep, we each throw on more comfortable shoes, dry shirts, and are soon on our way home.