Now that its getting warmer (supposedly, I mean it did snow 2 days ago) I’ve been able to get out and do some exploring. Doing trails I haven’t done before has been an adventure and a challenge. They’re not always well labeled and there have been times where I have no idea if I’m going the right way.
One trail that I did recently was Mt Buckhorn and Captain Jack (trail #665). The trail starts in Cheyenne Canyon in the dirt parking lot at the very top of Cheyenne Blvd. To get to the trail head, walk past the gate going toward Seven Bridges and St Mary’s Falls. The trail will be off to the right a little bit before Seven Bridges. It’s not labeled,but it is clearly there. After a slight uphill the trail will fork, turn right to keep going toward Mt. Buckhorn.
This trail is gorgeous. It’s really not too difficult, it has its uphill moments but they don’t last very long. There’s lots of flat parts for recovering. You get great views of Cheyenne Canyon and the surrounding mountains. This trail does have a false summit. When you get to what appears to be the top, take a sharp left and keep going up. You’ll know you’ve reached the summit when you see a huge boulder.
The trail is pretty clear from here. You hike down the other side of the mountain and end up at High Drive. From here you can turn right and follow the road back to the parking lot or cross the “road” to where Captain Jacks begins. The start of this trail is clearly labeled with a trail #665 marker. This three mile loop is fun, but watch out for mountain bikes. By the end of the trail we had gotten really good at leaping to the side as the bikes whizzed past. This adds about three miles to the route. The trail ends at another parking lot. Turn right and follow Gold Camp Road back to the main parking lot. This road is open to cars so be careful. You’ll go through two big tunnels on the way back. They’re pretty cool, its crazy to look at how they blasted through the rock so many years ago.
The whole loop ended up being about 7 miles. It was one of the easier loops I’ve done, but it had great views, made it easy to talk as we hiked, and Mushu was tired at the end. Definitely a success. And of course, we had to stop at Dutch Brothers on the way home for coffee.