Roosevelt National Forest: Round Mountain Trail with a Side-Trip to Stone Mountain

I got permission to go for a solo hike today. With a forecast of nice weather, I decided that a trip down into Colorado to hike the Round Mountain National Recreation Trail might be in order. I awoke at 5 am this morning, took the dog for a walk and then grabbed my gear for the drive. I was on the road by 5:30. I stopped at McDonalds in Cheyenne to grab breakfast to go and, after stopping for gas in Wellington, made it to the trailhead just west of Loveland by a little after 8 am. There were 3 other vehicles in the lot upon my arrival. I quickly readied my gear and then hit the trail.

The trail starts out as a wide, closed road. 

There are some pretty nice views right off the bat. 

I quickly turned off the nature trail and onto the "Summit Trail". 

It seems the Round Mountain trail goes by two names; it's also known as the Summit Adventure Trail. Interestingly, it doesn't lead to the summit of Round Mountain, but instead Sheep Mountain. Talk about confusing. The trail starts on land that I assume is owned by the City of Loveland, but pretty quickly passes into Roosevelt National Forest. 

The trail is 4.75 miles to the summit of Sheep Mountain and each mile is marked with a post.

I would say that the first two miles of the trail are the steepest. Beyond the first mile, views opened up west to the high, snow-covered peaks.

At mile 3, the trail gets a bit rockier and you pass this interesting rock formation that sits right on the trail. Toilet rock?

Beyond the rocky section the trail heads into the woods on the way to the summit. There are not any views from the summit proper. There is a benchmark at the summit 

and a large cairn that I took a selfie at. 

Embedded in the cairn is a metal cannister that contains the summit register. 

I signed the register 

and ate a snack, and then headed back towards the way I had come. 

On the way down, I felt I had enough energy to take a bit of a detour. In between miles markers 4 and 3 there is a faint path that leads east. Just beyond the trail junction is a tree with a metal marker embedded in it. 

The unofficial trail leads south of a ridge and you can catch intermittent views of Longs Peak and Mount Meeker through the trees.

After a short walk a view of Stone Mountain comes into view. That would be my objective for this part of the hike.

There is a bit of an easy scramble to get the the summit of Stone Mountain. Once up at the top, the view is amazing. You can see Longs and Meeker, Horsetooth Rock, Loveland, Fort Collins, and my favorite view, out to the Mummy Range.

I met two guys from Greeley up there. I talked to them for a bit, had one of them take my photo, and then I set off to hike back to the car. The hike down went pretty fast, but I did take some time to enjoy the views down the Big Thompson River Canyon.

I arrived back at my car to find a packed parking lot ready for the long drive back to Gering.

Buffalo Creek Wildlife Management Area

I've been to Buffalo Creek Wildlife Management Area three times now. Each time looking for an elusive moose that supposedly lives there. 

Each time I've left without any luck of seeing the moose, but lots of fun adventure in a very interesting area.

Back in September, just before Sierra's birthday, Noelle, Sierra and Mom T had gone there to look for the moose. We arrived to find fire trucks in the parking area for the Western Nebraska Engine Academy wildland firefighting training. Surprisingly, they allowed us to hike and as we made our way along the old road, 

we saw lots of action in the sky!

A plane and multiple helicopters were flying around dumping water on a fire. 

We had actually seen them close to home before we left. Maybe they were filling up at the canal near Five Rocks Amphitheater? 

The scenery was beautiful, 

but when we arrived at the wetlands area, 

the most likely area to see a moose, no luck! 

We turned around and headed back to the car just in time to be rushed out of the area by some of the firefighters. 

On New Year's Day I returned with a coworker. There was a little bit of snow on the ground and so I figured if the moose was around, we would see evidence of it in the form of tracks. We walked back to the wetland area and around the south side of it. Then we decided to climb up on a ridge for a view of the surrounding lands.

The views were great, but there were no moose to be seen. We descended from the ridge and then headed into the densely wooded riparian area along the creek. 

Hiking along the creek was like hiking in a different world. It was shady and snowy with ice along the sides of the creek. In places the creek formed a surprisingly deep ravine. 

Today, Noelle, Sierra, Rosie and I returned. We hiked through a cold wind along the road to the wetland

to have a quick look for the moose. Without any moose in sight, we decided to climb the ridge of some bluffs to the south of the wetland.

The climb up to the ridge was fairly easy. The views were awesome!

Sierra posed for a photo 

and then we decided to try to climb higher up the ridge. Unfortunately, there was a lot of cactus and Rosie got some spines in her paw. We retreated down the east side of the bluff, out of the wind. 

The views to the north were pretty spectacular!

Once down in the flats the hiking went quickly.

Soon enough we were back to the road 

and shortly thereafter back to the car and out of the wind. It was a pleasant little hike. We will definitely have to return to Buffalo Creek to do some more exploring!

Roosevelt National Forest: Hewlett Gulch

 I had wanted to go to Fort Collins with Noelle and Sierra today, but they didn't seem interested, at least Sierra didn't. Noelle gave me permission to go on a solo adventure and so I decided to make the drive to the Fort Collins area anyway and do a hike that would be too long for the family. I opted to head back into the Poudre Canyon and hike Hewlett Gulch, a 8.1 mile lollipop hike.

I left the house at about 6:15 this morning and drove through a beautiful sunrise through Wyoming, where I stopped in Cheyenne to get a fast food breakfast, and into Colorado. I exited Interstate 25 at the Owl Canyon Road exit and made my way to Colorado Highway 14 for the drive into Roosevelt National Forest. Today's hike would start a short distance further up the canyon than my last hike in the area, Greyrock Mountain. I arrived at the trailhead a little before 9 am and hit the trail.

The scenery was pretty nice right off the bat. 

Besides the scenery, there were some interesting building ruins and foundation to explore at the start of the trail.

As I headed further up the gulch, the scenery only got better!

There were multiple stream crossings that I was a little bit concerned about, but they turned out to be very easy crossings, even with ice covering many of them.

After hiking for about 45 minutes, I came to the junction where the loop portion of the hike starts. I opted to take the portion climbing out of the gulch first.

As I climbed out of the gulch, sometimes pretty steeply, the distant views really started to open up.

I stopped every now and then to admire the views and take some breaks.

Soon enough the trail descended rather steeply and re-entered the gulch. A short while later I was back at the trail junction for the short walk back to the car. By this time of the day, there were lots of people out and about enjoying the beautiful day.