What a fun little trail! After packing up camp at the Cottonwood Creek Campground, we made our way to Capser and over to Rotary Park for a hike of the Bridle Trail. The Bridle Trail was built in the 1939 and 1940 by the Works Progress Administration. It makes a 4.3-mile loop and features wonderful views and interesting features like Split Rock. We parked in the upper parking lot and headed over to Garden Creek Falls to start our hike.
We then retraced our steps a bit and set out on the Bridle Trail, opting to hike the loop in a counterclockwise direction.
The first (and last) section of trail was steep.
Luckily, there were plenty of wildflowers blooming to keep our interest.
Once the trail headed into thicker woods, it seemed to level out a bit.
We stopped to take breaks pretty frequently,
especially when the break spot offered a nice view.
When the trail started to really level out and a few rock outcrops started appearing,
I knew we were close to Split Rock. Sure enough, we soon found ourselves at this major trail landmark.
After a break to eat snacks, we started to make our way down on the opposite side of the loop. We passed a small cascade,
and soon entered into a section of private property that the trail traverses.
Apparently, this section of private land leaves the future of the trail in question. We continued to descend down to Garden Creek,
then crossed the creek and started to make our way down the mountain on the other side of the cascading creek. The views on this side of the creek seemed a bit more expansive. At one point we saw an old car down in a ravine.
Past the car, the trail traversed the side of the canyon
and over to a nice overlook known as the East Overlook. We paused for some photos here
before continuing the descent. Sierra enjoyed a small sandstone cave on the way down.
Once back to the car, we made the drive into town to the Mountain Hops brewery where we drank a few beers and got lunch from a food truck.
Then, it was the long drive back to Nebraska.
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