Hiking Blackmer Loop

We had a really nice relaxing weekend mostly because it's the start of football season.  We had to be home on Sunday to watch "our" teams.

We wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a hike before fall officially arrives.  Since the Chiefs were playing at 11:00 this morning we had to get up a little early so we could be back home before the kickoff.

We made our first visit to Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  We chose the longest trail that the park has to offer--The Blackmer Loop which is about 3.5 miles.

Upon pulling out my camera to take the first shot of the day I realized I had a camera problem, or more specifically an SD card problem.  Luckily, Irv had his phone with him and agreed to be my photographer for the day.  (I need to be more like my brother and bring multiple cameras along wherever I go.)

Here's Cheyenne Mountain.  Look at that blue sky!

We were very impressed at how well the trail was marked.  We passed these markers every so often.  Notice that they have the GPS coordinates on them.  This is so the EMTs can find you easier if something happens that requires their assistance.

All along the trail there were these information signs.  This one was about the creatures of the night.  We half expected to come across a bear or mountain lion because we were pretty much the only people out at this time of the morning.  We did encounter a mountain biker, in fact we saw him twice when he passed us again on his second trip around the loop.

One really cool thing we saw on the trail was this tree that is growing in the middle of a boulder. 

I don't know if you noticed me standing at the bottom of the boulder.  It was 48 degrees this morning when we arrived at the trailhead. 

You know you're from Colorado when you show up when it's that cool in shorts and within five minutes you've shed your jacket and are in a sleeveless shirt.  We thought it was the perfect temperature for a hike.

Perhaps we need to rethink that move to the Phoenix area.  Hmmm....you probably need to ask me about that again in a couple months when it's snowing, the wind is blowing, and the temp is on the south side of zero.

So here's the stats on our hike from Runkeeper.  See all those little bubbles?  We laughed because every time I was too slow Runkeeper would pause itself until I picked up the pace.  Each of those bubbles indicates a pause.

Here's an enlarged view.


It was an easy trail with about a 200 foot elevation gain which was mostly at the end of the loop.

I can't wait to explore the other 20 trails in Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  It is a nice place and I can't quite understand why we haven't hiked there before (probably because you have to pay $7 to get in and there are a whole lot of other options that you don't have to pay for). 


How was your weekend?