Hiking Colorado Springs

01/15/2024

The new book HIKING GARDEN OF THE GODS: 20 LOOP HIKES describes 20 scenic loop hikes around Garden of the Gods, an iconic city park of soaring red rocks on the west side of Colorado Springs.

The hikes, ranging in length from 0.4-mile Ridge Trail to 5.9-mile Garden of the Gods Grand Tour, are suitable for hikers of all abilities, as well as families with little kiddos and wheelchair explorers.

Amazingly, HIKING GARDEN OF THE GODS is the first hiking guidebook to this popular parkland, called the “Best City Park in the United States” by TripAdvisor.

The book is written by Stewart M. Green and Susan Joy Paul, both prolific local authors of many outdoor adventure, hiking, and climbing books for Falcon Guides and Every Adventure Publishing.

To treat yourself and your hiking buddies to new Garden adventures, pick up a copy of HIKING GARDEN OF THE GODS at several Colorado Springs stores, including REI at 1376 E. Woodman Rd., Mountain Chalet at 15 N. Nevada Ave., and Garden of the Gods Trading Post at 324 Beckers Lane in Garden of the Gods.

HIKING GARDEN OF THE GODS is also available on Amazon.

See you on the trail at Garden of the Gods!

Recognized as one of the best urban parks in the world, Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs draws millions of people every year. Miles of paved walkways and dirt, gravel, and slickrock trails offer a world of adventure, from casual strolls to strenuous hikes. And now, Hiking Garden of the 20 L...

03/31/2022

Cheyenne Mountain State Park, a 2,701-acre parkland, sprawls across foothills below Cheyenne Mountain on the southwest edge of Colorado Spring. The park also includes the southeastern flank of the mountain as well as the summit area.

With 21 trails totaling over 28 miles, the state park offers superb year-round hiking adventures that traverse open meadows, scrub oak thickets, and ponderosa pine and Douglas fir woodlands. Park amenities include a visitor center with educational displays, interpretive programs led by park rangers, picnic areas, and a spacious campground overlooking Fort Carson.

Park at the Visitor Center by the park entrance for easy hikes on Coyote Run and Boulder Run Trails to Blackmer Loop Trail.

For longer treks, park at the Limekiln Trailhead and hike the easy Medicine Wheel Trail and Zook Loop Trail. Good longer hikes are the Sundance Trail to Talon Trail, Blackmer Loop Trail, and Cougar's Shadow Trail.

The Dixon Trail is the most serious hike at the park, following the Talon Trail to North Talon Trail, then up the steep Dixon Trail to Dragon's Backbone and Robber's Roost just below the antenna field on the top of Cheyenne Mountain. This 15.4-mile, out-and-back hike, gaining 3,400 feet, takes a full day and is great training for walkers planning to climb a Fourteener.

A complete route description of the Dixon Trail is in the new Falcon Guide "HIKING COLORADO'S HIDDEN GEMS." Below is a link to the book on Amazon as well as a link to the Cheyenne Mountain State Park trail map.

Happy trails!

03/06/2022

There is no better local hike than strolling around the Garden of the Gods on the Perkins path on a winter's day. Falling snow muffles the distant sounds of the city and outlines the skeletal branches of scrub oak groves. Above the trail towers bulky North Gateway Rock, its red sandstone contrasting with the gray and white world.

02/16/2022

One of the most popular features at Red Rock Canyon Open Space on the west side of Colorado Springs is the pond beside the pavilion at the lower part of the canyon. Besides offering scenic views of The Whale and other soaring sandstone formations and Pikes Peak, the pond provides habitat for ducks and Canada geese and as a watering hole for mule deer and other animals.

The last time that water filled the pond was after torrential rainstorms in the summer of 2013. Since that time, nine years ago now, the Springs has continued to be in a drought and the pond began slowly drying up. By last summer it was about 10 feet below its high point and was on its way to being a muddy pit.

Earlier this winter, after urgent pleas from the Friends of Red Rock Canyon, the city Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services Department came up with a plan to replenish the evaporating water.

A large pump was brought into the park that transferred water from the lower pond into the upper pond in Red Rock Canyon, once again offering hikers and climbers restful views that reflect blue sky, clouds, and red rock.

As the days lengthen and warm, the ice in the pond is now melting. Check out the newly filled pond by taking a hike at Red Rock Canyon by hiking up the main trail from the parking areas. Return on either the Roundup Trail to the Contemplative Trail or the Quarry Pass Trail to the Mesa Trail.

05/11/2021

Nestled against the Front Range on the west side of Colorado Springs, Red Rock Canyon Open Space is one of the crown jewels of the city's natural parks. The park features a series of north-draining canyons separated by soaring sandstone hogbacks, historic sites like the Kenmuir Quarry which supplied stone blocks for building in the late 19th century, over 100 established rock climbing routes, and miles of trails for hikers.

For more information about Red Rock Canyon and its trails, check out the Friends of Red Rock Canyon website. You'll find plenty of info about park geology, area history, park activities, trail descriptions, and a downloadable trail map.

Check out the website and make a plan to take a hike at Red Rock Canyon. Don't forget to follow Leave No Trace principles to preserve our park. See ya on the trail!

Friends of Red Rock Canyon is an independent nonprofit organization which is recognized as a 'friends' group by the City of Colorado Springs Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services.

03/22/2021

With all of the spring snow and muddy trails, it's best to head south of Colorado Springs for dry paths and sunny skies. One of the best spots for a quick local hike is at 647-acre Bluestem Prairie Open Space, a City of Colorado Springs parkland east of Widefield.

Bluestem Prairie Open Space is a significant regional grassland that protects a remnant of tallgrass prairie composed mostly of big bluestem grass. It's also important bird habitat for wintering bald eagles, shorebirds, waterfowl, and migratory birds. Look for a herd of fleet-footed pronghorn antelope, the second-fastest mammal in the world, and one of the largest black-tailed prairie dog colonies near Colorado Springs.

The area, dominated by Big Johnson Reservoir, offers an excellent hike around the south, east, and north sides of the lake and plenty of birdlife.

Start at the Big Bluestem Trailhead on Goldfield Road. Hike east and north on 2.1-mile Big Bluestem Trail to a junction with 4.1-mile Meadowlark Loop Trail, which makes a big loop over grassy hills north of the reservoir. After returning to the junction, head back to the trailhead on Big Bluestem Trail for a free and easy 8.3-mile spring hike.

The photograph shows a flock of geese flying over the grasslands on a cloudy afternoon.

10/04/2020

The newest parkland for hiking, exploration, and scenery is Sandstone Ranch Open Space, a 2,038-acre nature preserve between Palmer Lake and Sedalia. The parkland just opened for public exploration after being purchased by Douglas County for $18.75-million dollars a few years ago.

The Ranch, called the "crown jewel" of the Douglas County Open Space program, is a historic ranch sprawling across dry grasslands, pastures, creeks, rounded hillocks, dense thickets of scrub oak, open ponderosa pine forest, and outcrops of coarse Fountain Formation sandstone. And yes, it is absolutely gorgeous.

Besides its natural assets, the area has historic ranch buildings that date back to the 1870s when the area was first settled. There are also over 12 miles of newly constructed trails threading over hill and dale.

I was out there last week rambling around, making GPX tracks, and taking photos since I'm putting the trails in a new book that I'm finishing for FalconGuides. Find out more about Sandstone Ranch by visiting the Douglas County open space website. The trailhead is on CO 105 north of Palmer Lake.

This photo is of some of the precarious hoodoos scattered around the property.

09/22/2020

One of the most disheartening things in this modern age is the disappearance of so much of Colorado's old heritage. I've tramped and explored around the whole Colorado rectangle for a lot of years, prying into hidden corners and canyons, climbing cliffs and peaks, exploring ramshackle mines and silvered ghost towns and now I feel fortunate that I was able to do that since so many shreds of the old days are gone.

I was thinking about this lost heritage last night after I scanned these two photographs taken in July 1976 just below the summit of 14,148-foot Mount Democrat, one of five Fourteeners west of Fairplay, a historic mining town. At that time, 44 years ago, an old miner's cabin, dating from the 1870s or 1860s, still stood proud above 14,000 feet.

The weathered plank building had withstood decades of hurricane-force winds, driving snowstorms, and heavy summer downpours. Unfortunately, like all things old, the ravages of time eventually reduced the cabin to a pile of debris, a crumpled reminder of glory days in the Mosquito Range.

The whole range is heavily mineralized and was first explored by the Pikes Peak or Bust Fifty-Niners, those hardy men and women who trekked west in search of gold and silver riches after the Civil War. In Buckskin Gulch below Mount Democrat, the town of Buckskin Joe was settled in 1860, the site of one of the first gold discoveries in Colorado by a mob of miners including Joseph Higginbottom AKA Buckskin Joe, nicknamed for his frontier garb.
After the placer deposits and shallow lodes ran out in 1866, Buckskin Joe became a ghost town and was supplanted by Fairplay down the valley, which thrived as a miner's supply station. The Mosquito Range, running from Hoosier Pass to Trout Creek Pass, boasts over 18,000 claims and 952 mines since those early beginnings.

I've been trying to find the record for the claim for that mine on Mount Democrat and when it was filed, but haven't had any luck yet. Plenty of other old mine structures are either still standing in the Mosquitos or have recently toppled, like the iconic Hilltop Mine at 12,850 feet on 14,036-foot Mount Sherman's southern slopes. I'll scan and post a photo of that amazing mine building as it looked back in the 1970s.

Besides time and weather destroying the old buildings and cabins, people have aided and abetted in their demise. Vandals sometimes tear planks off them. Some dig in the ruins for old coins or rusted tin cans. Back in the '70s a lot of people took apart weathered heritage buildings to use the "barn wood" for picture frames, door frames, or installing them in their dens for the rustic look.

If you're scrambling around in the high country here in Colorado or in other western states, take the time to look at the remaining mining buildings you find and look but don't touch. It won't be long before they're all pieces of driftwood on mountain slopes.

09/12/2020

I'll be signing copies of my newest book CLIMBING PIKES PEAK: A HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE PEAK at the Mountain Chalet next Saturday, September 19, from 2 to 4 PM.

The event will be COVID safe at an outside tent on the sidewalk outside the Chalet on North Nevada Avenue in downtown Colorado Springs. They'll be free stickers and posters, as well as posters signed by famous climbers available for sale with proceeds going to the Pikes Peak Climber's Alliance.

Come on by for a book and the latest outdoor gear at Mountain Chalet!

September Saturdays are a buzz DOWNTOWN! Sidewalks are filled with all sorts of fun things. One is special at the shop.

At Mountain Chalet on Saturday, 9/19 from 2-4pm, one of Colorado Springs' native sons, legendary climber and celebrated author, Stewart M. Green will be signing your book...the latest one about PIKES PEAK or any of his many others!

Fun, free posters, stickers and all the secret stashes on America's mountain. Come by and say hi!

08/19/2020

Every Adventure Publishing just released CLIMBING PIKES PEAK: A HIKER"S GUIDE TO THE PEAK, the first comprehensive hiking guide to the Great One in our backyard. The book includes 8 different summit routes, a bunch of lower summits on Pikes Peak, and 5 classic trails, including the scenic Crags Trail.

Here's a link to the book on Amazon. It's also available right now at the Mountain Chalet and REI. Grab a copy and make a plan to climb Pikes Peak before the snow flies.

Climbing Pikes Peak: A Hiker's Guide to the Peak