Roadtrip to the Rockies: Lizard Rock Trail

Trail: Lizard Rock
Distance: 4.6 miles (RT)
Elevation: 8,500-9,350

Today I took an overnight road-trip to our mountain cabin and I got my first hike in of the year in Colorado.  That’s hard to believe!  I don’t know where the time has gone.  Anyway, I decided on a hike called Lizard Rock.  The trailhead can be found at the Spruce Grove Campground off of Tarryall Road.  It was a much farther drive than I was expecting, especially for a 4.6 mile hike, but the drive was beautiful.

The road took me by old barns and farmland as well as a variety of turnout marked with history story boards.  On the way to the trailhead, I stopped at an early homestead called the Derby Cabin.  The tiny cabin was home to a cowboy, William Derby, his wife and two daughters.  When his young wife died at 23 years old, he left the valley.

Soon I reached the Spruce Grove Campground.  The parking at the trailhead was for hike-in campers, so I had to park in a small area just outside the campground for dayhikers.  Sheena, a German Shephard for which I’m caring, and I meandered through the campground to the trailhead where we began our hike.  The trail immediately crosses the creek over a sturdy bridge and turns to left by the creek’s bank.  The dirt path led us immediately to a short passage through the boulders.

From here, the trail slowly climbed 1,000 feet over the 2.3 miles to Lizard Rock.  Along the way, we passed by a few stands of aspens, some open spaces, a variety of rock formations and eventually a nice view of the meadow.  I’m not exactly sure which rock formation looked like the lizard, but I know I hiked far enough to see it and then some.

found the shade on the trail

The trail continues to Hankins Pass Trail which I believe I started up as the grade increased.  I wasn’t planning on going too far for my first hike of the year, so I found a nice place off the side of the trail in the shade of the pine forest to snack on a light lunch before heading back down while enjoying the early signs of summer as wildflowers were beginning to bloom.  I may have to come back to explore more of the connecting trails.  ETB

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Amble Through Apex Park

I was so excited to see the forecast…no snow and temperatures warming to the mid-50’s in Denver.  As such, I planned a snowshoe with Tanya (and Ellie the dog) at Lake Isabelle in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.  Little did I know that the high in the area was only going to be 18 degrees.  And that doesn’t include any windchill above the treeline.  Fortunately, Tanya was open to adjusting the location.

Instead, we headed out to Apex Park, part of Jefferson County Open Space.  The 700 acre park provides 9.4 miles of multi-use trails.  We arrived at the parking area around 9:30.  We were the only car in the lot aside from one other that pulled in simultaneously.  It seemed odd that on this clear, sunny day only a few of us would be enjoying the trail, but at 9:30 it was still bitter cold at a mile high!

We grabbed a map, bundled up, and prepared for a hike around five-miles.  We hadn’t decided on which route to take, but we knew from perusing the map we connect a few loops to get in a decent walk for the day.  We started out Apex Trail where we quickly came to a trail junction.

Since much of Apex Trail caters to mountain bikers, we turned right onto Pick-N-Sledge Trail and gained close to 900 feet over the next 1.5 miles.  Depending on which side of the mountain slope we were on, we either trekked along an orange path lined by golden grasses or  a frozen path of snow.  While I doubt this is true, frozen ground feels harder than pavement!  At least we weren’t walking through slush.

From Pick-N-Sledge Trail we began to descend down Grubstake Trail.  In the shade of the forest, however, Ellie’s feet started getting cold, so we turned around and took a half-mile short cut on Bonanza.  From Bonanza we connected with Grubstake and soon retraced our steps back to the trailhead.

We found our steps along the frozen side of the slope to be beautiful.  The pine trees and succulents were covered in frost, like a sprinkler system went off while it was below freezing.  In places, we could see the shapes of the individual snowflakes.

While the landscape was pretty and the view of Golden was nice, what I think we liked the most was spotting a large herd of elk!  I was surprised to see them so close to town.  Usually, we are only blessed with deer sightings.  They were quite grand and certainly cautious of our hunting dog!  Overall, I think our jaunt turned out to be four miles…no big feat, but a nice way to spend a sunny day that eventually warmed up.  I suppose we’ll get out there and snowshoe at some point, but I’ll be headed to warmer weather first…Cuba!  ETB

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A Day at Devil’s Backbone

I took the nicest hike with Ellie today.  I take care of her Mondays-Thursdays, so she sort feels like mine.  She loves humans, but isn’t quite as fond of other dogs.  Ellie is a Plott Hound, a breed of which I have never heard.  She is an extremely well behaved dog.

Unfortunately, my friends couldn’t join me this week.  They were headed out of town, have friends in town, renovating their house, and training a new puppy.  But it was good, because it gave me a chance to play around with my DSLR.  I haven’t used my good camera for over six months, as I don’t want to slow people down on hikes, though I have recently been inspired to practice as a friend asked me if I would photograph their wedding in Montana!

I feel so flattered and nervous at the same time.  I’ve never shot a wedding, nor do I spend too much time with people as my subjects.  Nature is my bread and butter.  Anyway, I’m very excited about it.

On to the hike…today I decided to visit Devil’s Backbone Open Space.  It is located near Loveland, just south of Fort Collins.  We don’t generally travel north for hiking unless we head a little west as well toward Rocky Mountain National Park.  I definitely was not familiar with the area.  The forecast called for a windy day.  As such, Ellie and I waited until 9am to drive the hour north to give the air temperature a chance to warm up.

Upon arrival at the open space, I studied the posted map.  There were a variety of trails that connected to one another.  I opted for a combination of three loops, Wild Loop, Hunter Loop, and Laughing Horse Loop.  The total mileage added up to 4.9 miles.

We started out on the red, sandstone path on the interpretive Wild Loop Trail.  Generally I’m not that fond of interpretive trails because they feel commercialized, but this trail felt different.  The uneven, rocky path along with a simple numbered posts and brochures available at the trailhead were very well done by Larimer County Open Lands Program.

The Devil’s Backbone is composed of gray-brown to tan Dakota Sandstones of the Lytle Formation which is between 100-115 years old.  It is home to a variety of nesting birds, including red-tailed hawks, prairie falcons, swallows, a pair of ravens, and a great horned owl.  Apparently, it is rare to find a pair of nesting ravens in this area.  Today, I saw hawks soaring in the cool breeze over the rock formation.

In fact, the cool breeze was most welcome.  It turned out to be very warm for a November day beneath clear, blue skies.  I made several water stops for Ellie, who seemed to always have her tongue swinging in the wind as she trotted along with me.

The rocks that create the Devil’s Backbone sure look like they would be fun to climb, though climbing isn’t allowed.  I was happy to find that the trail did lead us quite close to the keyhole so we could get a better look at the formation and the views to the west that include Long’s Peak, a 14er.  I can’ only imagine how pretty the view would have been if there was a bit more snow in the mountains, but as a non-skier, I’m not complaining about the unseasonably warm weather.The keyhole was formed by erosion of coarse-grained rocks that were weaker than the rocks around the hole.

From the key hole and rock formation, we continued on to Hunter Loop and then to Laughing Horse Loop over rolling prairie peppered with dormant bushes, golden praire grass, and cacti that had finished blooming.  I bet during the right season, the flowers and color along the trail would be lovely.  Since we were quietly strolling along the trail, we were blessed to spot a few deer!

I really enjoyed going at my own pace and testing out different settings on my camera. It has been a while since I hiked alone.  I think I did a substantially good job of wearing out Ellie as well.  It was quite a peaceful day!  ETB

websites: http://larimer.org/parks/bbone.cfm

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