Day Hike – Golden Gate Canyon State Park, CO

Emma, Dennis, & Clare Summit Windy Peak (9,000 ft)

In order to acclimate Emma to CO, we decided to take her on a nice little day hike around Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Thanks to a blog by Fun Colorado Hikes, I located some information about Golden Gate Canyon State Park.

Golden Gate Canyon, CO State Park
The blog recommended the Mountain Lion Trail, and the Burro Trail. SO, we decided we’d do a little bit of both!

The Trailhead for the Mountain Lion Trail is at Nott Creek. It’s a fairly large parking lot with a bathroom. Here we are at the start of the hike:
Clare, Emma, and Dennis at Nott Creek Trailhead

The Mountain Lion Trail starts on a nice path, then meets up with an old forest service road. We turned right, then followed this road until we saw a sign for the trail.

Dennis & Emma on Forest Service Road (Mountain Lion Trail)
Dennis & Emma Enjoy a Summer Stroll

Wildcat Spotting on the Mountain Lion Trail!
Wildcat Spotted on the Mountain Lion Trail

During our hike, we ran into 5 people on horseback, and 5 crazy mountain bikers. The Mountain Lion trail is a really pretty single track trail, which follows Deer Creek up a canyon, up near Windy Peak, then back down.

The Mountain Lion Trail Crosses Deer Creek Several Times, and offers plenty of shade:
Emma & Dennis - Another Creek Crossing

Pretty Mountain Lion Trail, Golden Gate Canyon State Park:
Mountain Lion Trail

There are many opportunities for wildflower viewing:
Pretty Wildflowers on Mountain Lion Trail

Insect & Wildflower on Burro Trail

After hiking 2.5 hours, we reached the summit of Windy Peak, just over 9,000 ft. We gained about 1200 feet of gain, so it was a pretty moderate hike. Mostly uphill, but a lovely trail the whole way.

We had lunch at the summit, and Emma & I played around on the rocks, as the weather started looking rainy:
Emma Loves Rock Scrambling!

Clare & Emma Scrambling on Rocks

Time to leave the summit!

So, we headed down the southeast side of Windy Peak, following the Burro Trail. Here’s Emma forging a trail (she’s wicked fast downhill!) and Dennis trying to keep up.
Emma's Forging Ahead

Dennis Enjoying the Hike

Here’s the pretty view you get going down the Burro Trail, I believe it’s called Lookout Ridge!
View East from Burro Trail

We made it back to the car around 2pm, just in time for a few sprinkles of rain. Phew! I decided that Pizza in Golden sounded like a nice thing, so we headed into town.

I’m happy Emma was able to hike the 5 miles with relative ease, and she was quite interested in flower and plant identification along the way. All good signs!

The hike was also a nice one for my VFFs, the path up Mountain Lion Trail was soft & spongy. The Burro trail, was a little more compact and harder on the feet. All in all a great place to hike, but I’d like to go back with my bike!

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