First Hike of the Year. Yippee!!

Yesterday was quite a wintery day on the eastern plains of Colorado.  I'm not going to say it was a blizzard, but it was driving snow with wind for most of the day.  

Officially I think we got somewhere around 5 inches of snow, but it's hard to tell because of the wind.  In some spots the ground is bare while in other areas there are two foot drifts.  Irv is out there snow blowing as I write this to remove the drifts on the driveway so we can eventually get the vehicles out.  Last night at 9:00 the snow plow was out with a police escort so I assume the drifting on the east-west roads was quite significant.  It's days like these that make me happy to be retired with no where to go.

So a really cool thing happened in Colorado this year.  Starting on January 1st you had the option of buying a State Park Annual Pass for only $29 when you renew your vehicle registration.  We have a state park near us that we have rarely hiked at because we didn't want to purchase the $80 annual pass or pay the $10 day fee so we jumped at the opportunity to buy the $29 pass when the registration was due in January for Irv's car.  The one negative is that it's only good for the car you registered and it's something you have to opt out of when renewing your registration.  People who aren't paying attention will be paying that fee whether they use the state parks or not.  I'm hoping it really boosts funding for our public parks.

Anyway, we had beautiful weather last Saturday so we hopped in Irv's car to head for a a hike at Cheyenne Mountain State Park.  As you can see from the trail map above, there are lots of trail options.

Our chosen trail was Soaring Kestrel  which only had about a 300+ foot elevation gain.  Starting at the Visitor Center you have to take some interconnected trails to reach your destination.  These trails are marked with these markers at every intersection which I really appreciate.

The trails were in fairly decent condition when we started with a little remaining snow and some mud. 

The Coyote Run trail took us right where we wanted to be so off we went.

This park is located at the foot of Cheyenne Mountain so I'd call it an urban mountain especially because you can still hear traffic and see structures during parts of the hike.  That's Fort Carson in the distance.

It wasn't a great day for wildlife.  Other than a couple birds and this hoof print we didn't see anything.

That's Cheyenne Mountain behind Irv with all it's antennae on top.

We always have to take a selfie on these excursions.

On my brother's mountain they close the trails when they're muddy which is actually a really good thing.  Here, they just ask you to abide by the Leave No Trace Principles.  Minimal impact on the trails which means you hike through the mud rather than around to minimize impact to the trail.  Gross, but that's what we did.

After climbing for awhile we finally made it up to the campground area.  It looks quite full for this time of year.  Yesterday I actually made us reservation to camp here in early April so we can make sure everything is working on the trailer before heading to Yellowstone.  RVs aren't made with really great building standards and things malfunction or break all the time.  

Now we transitioned to the Raccoon Ridge Trail then to the Boulder Run and Coyote Run trails to get back to the Visitor Center.

This side of the loop we were doing was more in the trees so more snow and ice and mud was encountered.

Hmmm...better think about bear spray the next time.

We pretty much had the place to ourselves.  We came across a couple trail runners and maybe three other hikers and one dog.  One thing I like about being in a state park is that I feel it's safer parking there.  At the trailheads around town people are always having their valuables stolen.  I never bring my purse along when I hike so I don't have to worry about securing it.

Quite a bit of erosion under this bench.  You have to be at least six feet tall to sit here. 😁

We made it back to the car just in time to pull up Georgie's synchro skating competition live on the iPhone.  They did fantastic and were awarded second place.

Just in case you don't know the 7 principles of leave no trace.

1.  Plan ahead and prepare

2.  Travel and camp on durable surfaces

3.  Dispose of waste properly

4.  Leave what you find

5.  Minimize campfire impacts

6.  Respect wildlife

7.  Be considerate of others

Do you think I can post this on my window at Yellowstone?  

Happy hiking!