Curt Gowdy State Park: Canyons Trail

This morning, Rosie and I made the drive down to Cheyenne and then over to Curt Gowdy State Park. We entered the park, purchased our entry pass and drove to the trailhead for today's hike near the Granite Springs Dam. Right away there were great views of the surrounding foothills. 

Today's hike would follow the Canyons Trail and right away the trail followed a canyon where water flowed out of the Granite Springs Reservoir. 

There was a lot of mountain mahogany along the trail, with its unusual feathery fruit.

Once we reached the bottom of the canyon, there were a lot of deciduous trees and a little bit of fall color.

Every now and then, Rosie and I stopped to take a break and drink some water. 

Away from the canyon, the trail passed through some meadows with views of the surrounding foothills. 

While I had hoped to see some aspens with golden autumn leaves, the closest I got was some Balm of Gilead that was adorned in brilliant yellow.

Soon enough, the trail passed by Crow Creek, right before it enters the Crystal Reservoir.

The view looking across the reservoir was pretty spectacular!

At this point, I figured I was nearing the end of the hike. However, I was wrong. The trail veered away from the water and over to another deep canyon. This one featured a two-track road at its bottom. 

The trail followed the rim of the canyon and slowly descended towards its bottom.

I thought it might be interesting to come back at some point to walk the road at the bottom of the canyon. However, when we reached the bottom, we found it to be fenced-off.

We climbed up to the opposite rim and crossed a hilly area. Soon we could see views of the road that we would walk back to the start of the hike. We walked past a developed area where we met a curious magpie.

Then, we walked the road back to the car with intermittent views out across the reservoir. 

Pawnee National Grasslands: Pawnee Buttes

Today, Rosie, Mom T and I headed south into the plains of eastern Colorado to hike the Pawnee Buttes. I had hiked the buttes before, during the family's first trip outside of Nebraska during the start of the Covid pandemic. Today, I thought we could check out the Lips Bluff area. Lips Bluff is closed to protect nesting raptors for the summer. However, it is reopened for access right now.

We arrived at the trailhead and hit the trail, immediately passing through a gate. After the gate the trail traverses a flat area at the top of a bluff. Then, the trail passes through another gate before descending down off of the bluff. We let Rosie walk off leash since there were not a lot of other people hiking in the area. 

She stayed close, stopping every so often to look back and wait for us to catch up to her. 

The scenery was stunning, in a prairie sort of way, and the weather was perfect.

Once we reached the bottom, the trail flattened out and we made our way towards the west bluff.

We passed the base of the west bluff,

and headed towards the east bluff.

At the boundary with private property, we turned around and started to make our way back.

At the junction with the Lips Bluff "Trail", we turned left and started to ascend a set of stairs to the top of the bluff. There were great views out to the two Pawnee Buttes.

At the top of the ridge, we turned to the right to follow the ridge back towards the trailhead.

Unfortunately, we found a downclimb too steep to navigate on the ridge and were forced to turn around.

We followed the official trail back up towards the trailhead. Along the way we met a group of hikers from Loveland, CO and talked with them for a bit. They were kind enough to take our photo.

Then, we had an eventful drive back to Gering that featured a traffic stop and a shattered window.

Mount Bierstadt

I met my friend Steve at his house last night and early this morning, we made the drive west, up into the mountains for our climb of Mount Bierstadt. We arrived at the trailhead shortly after 6 am and set out on the well-trodden trail. The hike began with a descent down to Scott Gomer Creek.

We caught a glimpse of a bull moose in a small pond near the start of the trail. However, in the early morning light it was too dark to photograph. After crossing the creek we started our ascent in earnest. 

As the sun rose in the sky, the nearby mountains were bathed in a soft orange glow. 

We slowly made our way up the trail, stopping frequently to take breaks. 

As we ascended, the scenery just got better and better. 

Eventually the trail reached a flat section and just ahead the last section of the climb featured a scramble up a jumble of rocks.

We made pretty quick time of this last section,

and soon enough we were standing on the summit of Mount Bierstadt!

After a short break on the summit, we started to make our way down, back towards the trailhead at Guanella Pass. 

On the descent, we caught a glimpse of a family of ptarmigan. 

After the ptarmigan sighting, it was a fairly quick descent back to the car. The scenery on the way was spectacular.

We also observed what are likely the last wildflowers in bloom at these altitudes: a type of gentian. 

Soon enough we were back at the trailhead,

and ready to get some lunch in Idaho Springs on the way back to Arvada. It was a great day for exploring the high mountains of Colorado with great company!