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.
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:
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)
Wildcat Spotting 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:
Pretty Mountain Lion Trail, Golden Gate Canyon State Park:
There are many opportunities for wildflower viewing:
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:
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.
Here’s the pretty view you get going down the Burro Trail, I believe it’s called Lookout Ridge!
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!
Tags: CO, Golden Gate Canyon State Park, Hiking, VFF