Hi all! Been a while. Mental slumps, busy work schedule, kung fu training is being stepped up a few notches. Leaves me little time for writing.
But I have managed to get out hiking quite a bit! So today I am finally posting from a hike about three weeks ago. Up in North Cheyenne Canyon is a closed gravel road, Gold Camp Road. Which makes it a perfect, nice, hike on the side of the mountain.
My hiking partner and I did about ten miles total. From the parking lot to just before Tunnel Number 4, and then back.
Quick history, Gold Camp Road has six (I think) tunnels. A while back the third tunnel collapsed, and it was determined that it was too risky to try to fix and allow cars through. So the road from just above Helen Hunt falls all the way to Tunnel 6 was closed. It is possible to still go down the road from the falls through Tunnels 1 and 2.
So let's get started!
The day started out foggy and a bit chilly. The city below us stayed that way the whole day. We didn't. The fog burned off about an hour after we started.
Just around that bend is the trail head for Seven Bridges. That's a fairly easy hike that's really pretty and has, you guessed it, seven bridges. It's also a really popular hike, so it can be difficult to do or get good pictures if there are too many people.
Ah! Fingers! I apologize, I was dealing with a new camera mount.
A giant boulder field! This area always makes me think of giants.
My hiking partner always thinks of one of them coming loose as we walk by.
This is Tunnel 3. There's grating on each side. On this side someone spray painted a heart, and it gets touched up at least once a year when it starts to fade. We are walking up the left.
Fun fact! There's actually quite a few ghost stories that surround this tunnel. All of them deal with the collapse of it, all of them that I can recall at the moment involve a car, and I can tell you, there is no car under that rockfall in the tunnel, so none of them are likely true.
The trail splits. You can kind of see the sign on the right hand sign of both trails. That sign is a lie, don't ever believe the distances on it.
The trail on the right goes up to St. Mary's Falls. Absolutely gorgeous all year round, if you can get up there over the ice in winter. The last part of that hike is fairly brutal, lots of switchbacks uphill, but it's worth it. Hoping to make it up there this year, we will see. We are going to the left.
(I really hope that works, I've never put video in a post before)
So being on the side of a mountain, there's a few areas where rock was blasted through or removed to allow the road to safely pass around a curve and not be exposed to a cliff face. Here's one of those areas.
This is the section of the hike I always manage to forget about, and it always seriously demotivates me when I round the curve and find this and not the tunnel.
But it's not too far away now.
See! There it is! This one is a long tunnel, but straight. I have been through it once (well, twice, cause I had to go back). It took the promise of whiskey and vodka to get me through to the other side. I don't like tunnels. Not one bit. Nope, nope, no.
I do, however, adore caves. Figure that one out.
Snapped a few photos on the way back.
Stovetop Mountain. A guy died falling off that rock a few years ago. He was not smart about how he was scaling it (from what I've heard). If you're gonna do stuff like that, be smart and safe about it.
This rock was about the size of my head. It was not on the road when we first passed by.
The backside of Tunnel 3.
Stopped by the creek to soak my feet. Much needed water therapy.
And yes, I am actually that pale. According to my genetic ancestry results, I'm like, 60% Irish, 39% super Northern European. I never stood a chance. And not getting sunburned is hell.
From there it was about a half mile back to the parking lot.
Hope you enjoyed the hike! The next one is my favorite hike I have probably ever done. We went to go see dinosaur footprints!