We arrived at the trailhead for this hike in the late afternoon. Yes, it was the hottest part of the day, but the high temperature was only forecast to be about 69 degrees F. The first of the three short trails here we set off on was the Door Trail. The Door Trail starts out on a flat, easy boardwalk.
After a short distance on the boardwalk, hikers have the option to continue on a more rugged, naturally surfaced trail. We set off to explore this more rugged area.
The end of the trail is signed and offers nice views of the surrounding landscape.
After enjoying the view here for a bit we retraced our steps back to the parking lot and then made our way to the very short Window Trail.
The entire Window Trail is a boardwalk.
It leads to a nice overlook of an eroded canyon system.
After a short time enjoying the view from the Window, it was time to hike the most anticipated of the trails in the area, the infamous Notch Trail.
The Notch Trail starts by following the bottom of a drainage.
After hiking in the drainage for a short time we ran into a pair of bighorn sheep ewes.
After observing the sheep for a bit we found ourselves at the bottom of the famous Notch ladder. We waited a bit for our turn to climb up and then made our way up pretty quickly.
The other side of the ladder is where the scenery got a bit more dramatic.
The trial ends at its namesake Notch, a break in the rocks that offers views of the grasslands and scattered badland formations below. We enjoyed the view at the Notch for a bit,
then made our way back towards the ladder.
We had to wait a bit for our turn to descend the ladder but eventually made our way down. Going down was a little trickier than the climb up, but not too bad.
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Soon we were back at the parking lot and ready to finish up our tour for the day.
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