Horsetooth Mountain Open Space
This post is about the trails of Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. I will post about the trails that I hike on.
This week I hiked Inlet Bay, Swan Johnson, Shoreline, and Nomad.
Inlet Bay is on the far South East corner of the open space. It is 1.25 miles long and is accessed by Blue Sky Trailhead or Soderberg Trailhead. I started yesterday at Blue Sky and headed North on the trail. The trail was fairly busy with hikers. Personally, I would call this hike more of a walking trail. It goes along the edge of the Inlet Bay campground which was quite a busy place with RV's and boats. On the other side of the trail is an access road which was fairly bustling with boaters. The trail also goes by Inlet Bay of Horsetooth Reservoir. Lots of boats on the water. It was a beautiful day!
From the North end of Inlet Bay Trail we continued onto Swan Johnson trail. This trail moved out of the busy campground area, through the Soderberg trailhead and right through what I believe is the old Soderberg homestead. Near the homestead we encountered three grazing deer and some song birds. I'm thinking they were Western Meadowlarks, very beautiful and very beautiful songs. This was a much prettier section than the Inlet Bay trail, but only a mile or so long and there is still a view of a road and houses. The trail ends when it hits Towers trail and from there turns into Shoreline trail.
Today I parked at the Soderberg Trailhead and hiked Swan Johnson again. This time it was lightly raining and very overcast. We saw lots of mountain bikers, plenty of hikers, and a few fishermen. We passed a guy smoking a cigarette on the trail. I'm always surprised when I see this, because it's usually illegal on the trails. I don't personally care as long as butts are not left behind and smoke is not blown in my face like it was today.
We continued off of Swan Johnson onto Shoreline Trail. The trail is pretty and passes by a couple boat-in tent sites on Dixon Cove of Horsetooth Reservoir. We found two crawdads on the trail headed downhill to the east towards the reservoir. One of the crawdads had a bunch of small black eggs tucked up between her body and her tail. Really cool. Michael careful moved them off the trail in the direction they were headed. Later we found a small black slug and also moved that off the trail. The trail is 1.1 miles long and mostly stays on the edge of Dixon Cove. Then the trail intersects with Nomad trail. It circles back again and ends to meet Nomad trail right at the North Eastern edge of Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. From here, the trail (not sure of the name of the continued trail) runs into Lory State Park. I do know that at this point it is only about a mile hike to a trailhead in Lory State Park, but we turned back South onto the Nomad trail instead. We will be hiking all of the Lory trails later in the Spring or Summer.
The north end of Nomad trail is popular with mountain bikers because of a skidder hill feature there. It looks dangerous and like a lot of fun. As we headed south on Nomad we saw ponds, small waterfalls, and creeks. A few creeks crossed the path. Michael and I each slipped a foot into a creek accidentally while crossing on rocks. We both had soaked shoes at this point. I couldn't find my boots this morning, and it turns out they were in the trunk. We didn't get cold in our sweatshirts as long as we kept walking. Michael got a little grumpy about the wet feet. I wasn't too thrilled about it either and did not feel like hearing grumbling, so we had a bit of a "discussion" as this point followed by a little quiet time and then a hug. Lesson: it's OK to feel grumpy about muddy wet shoes, but let's keep our complaints to ourselves. Nomad was my favorite trail of the day. We heard a lot of toads and enjoyed the brush which was covered in pleasant smelling white blossoms. The south end of Nomad hits Towers Trail. A quick jaunt to the east brought us back to the South end of Swan Johnson. Then back on that trail to the trailhead and the car.
I was ready to get out of my wet shoes in a hurry. We were home 15 minutes later and shoes went into the washing machine after Matt slapped the mud off for us. I realized my clothes where pretty damp too, so those had to be changed. I then found my hiking boots and had to wear them to work since my tennis shoes were being washed. I hope they come out of the wash OK. You never know what shoes are going to do with washing and drying. After work Matt surprised me with a new pair of running shoes. I'd been needing a pair for a while. I wore them to play laser tag tonight with Matt and Michael, and they are so perfect I forgot I was even wearing new shoes. Thank you Matt! And thank you Michael for being my hiking buddy.
The other trails we have previously hiked in Horsetooth Mountain Open Space are Horsetooth Falls (beautiful right now and SO much water, though quite a busy trail), Horsetooth Rock Trail (completely worth the effort it takes for the 5 miles round trip with LOTS of uphill and a boulder scramble), and South Ridge Trail (I consider this an ugly alternate route to part of the Horsetooth Rock trail). Hopefully by the end of May we will have hiked all 29 miles of the parks trails. The remaining trails are:
Towers
Spring Creek
Soderberg
Herrington
West Ridge
Carey Springs
Loggers
Sawmill
Stout
Wathen
Audra Culver
I actually think we've hit Wathen and Audra Culver before, but since I'm not sure we are going to do them again.
This week I hiked Inlet Bay, Swan Johnson, Shoreline, and Nomad.
Inlet Bay is on the far South East corner of the open space. It is 1.25 miles long and is accessed by Blue Sky Trailhead or Soderberg Trailhead. I started yesterday at Blue Sky and headed North on the trail. The trail was fairly busy with hikers. Personally, I would call this hike more of a walking trail. It goes along the edge of the Inlet Bay campground which was quite a busy place with RV's and boats. On the other side of the trail is an access road which was fairly bustling with boaters. The trail also goes by Inlet Bay of Horsetooth Reservoir. Lots of boats on the water. It was a beautiful day!
From the North end of Inlet Bay Trail we continued onto Swan Johnson trail. This trail moved out of the busy campground area, through the Soderberg trailhead and right through what I believe is the old Soderberg homestead. Near the homestead we encountered three grazing deer and some song birds. I'm thinking they were Western Meadowlarks, very beautiful and very beautiful songs. This was a much prettier section than the Inlet Bay trail, but only a mile or so long and there is still a view of a road and houses. The trail ends when it hits Towers trail and from there turns into Shoreline trail.
Today I parked at the Soderberg Trailhead and hiked Swan Johnson again. This time it was lightly raining and very overcast. We saw lots of mountain bikers, plenty of hikers, and a few fishermen. We passed a guy smoking a cigarette on the trail. I'm always surprised when I see this, because it's usually illegal on the trails. I don't personally care as long as butts are not left behind and smoke is not blown in my face like it was today.
We continued off of Swan Johnson onto Shoreline Trail. The trail is pretty and passes by a couple boat-in tent sites on Dixon Cove of Horsetooth Reservoir. We found two crawdads on the trail headed downhill to the east towards the reservoir. One of the crawdads had a bunch of small black eggs tucked up between her body and her tail. Really cool. Michael careful moved them off the trail in the direction they were headed. Later we found a small black slug and also moved that off the trail. The trail is 1.1 miles long and mostly stays on the edge of Dixon Cove. Then the trail intersects with Nomad trail. It circles back again and ends to meet Nomad trail right at the North Eastern edge of Horsetooth Mountain Open Space. From here, the trail (not sure of the name of the continued trail) runs into Lory State Park. I do know that at this point it is only about a mile hike to a trailhead in Lory State Park, but we turned back South onto the Nomad trail instead. We will be hiking all of the Lory trails later in the Spring or Summer.
The north end of Nomad trail is popular with mountain bikers because of a skidder hill feature there. It looks dangerous and like a lot of fun. As we headed south on Nomad we saw ponds, small waterfalls, and creeks. A few creeks crossed the path. Michael and I each slipped a foot into a creek accidentally while crossing on rocks. We both had soaked shoes at this point. I couldn't find my boots this morning, and it turns out they were in the trunk. We didn't get cold in our sweatshirts as long as we kept walking. Michael got a little grumpy about the wet feet. I wasn't too thrilled about it either and did not feel like hearing grumbling, so we had a bit of a "discussion" as this point followed by a little quiet time and then a hug. Lesson: it's OK to feel grumpy about muddy wet shoes, but let's keep our complaints to ourselves. Nomad was my favorite trail of the day. We heard a lot of toads and enjoyed the brush which was covered in pleasant smelling white blossoms. The south end of Nomad hits Towers Trail. A quick jaunt to the east brought us back to the South end of Swan Johnson. Then back on that trail to the trailhead and the car.
I was ready to get out of my wet shoes in a hurry. We were home 15 minutes later and shoes went into the washing machine after Matt slapped the mud off for us. I realized my clothes where pretty damp too, so those had to be changed. I then found my hiking boots and had to wear them to work since my tennis shoes were being washed. I hope they come out of the wash OK. You never know what shoes are going to do with washing and drying. After work Matt surprised me with a new pair of running shoes. I'd been needing a pair for a while. I wore them to play laser tag tonight with Matt and Michael, and they are so perfect I forgot I was even wearing new shoes. Thank you Matt! And thank you Michael for being my hiking buddy.
The other trails we have previously hiked in Horsetooth Mountain Open Space are Horsetooth Falls (beautiful right now and SO much water, though quite a busy trail), Horsetooth Rock Trail (completely worth the effort it takes for the 5 miles round trip with LOTS of uphill and a boulder scramble), and South Ridge Trail (I consider this an ugly alternate route to part of the Horsetooth Rock trail). Hopefully by the end of May we will have hiked all 29 miles of the parks trails. The remaining trails are:
Towers
Spring Creek
Soderberg
Herrington
West Ridge
Carey Springs
Loggers
Sawmill
Stout
Wathen
Audra Culver
I actually think we've hit Wathen and Audra Culver before, but since I'm not sure we are going to do them again.
posted by Unknown @ 10:37 PM
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