O'Fallon Park: Meadow View and West Ridge Trails

Distance: 5.5 miles round trip
Elevation: 6,900 ft - 7,500 ft
Elevation Gain: 600 ft (net) 1,172 ft (cumulative)
Bathroom at Trailhead: Yes
Dogs: On leash (Denver Mountain Parks)
Date Hiked: 16 February 2014
Tags: #openspace, #coloradooutdoors, #kittridge

View from the vista point in the O'Fallon open space

O'Fallon park, located near Kittridge on Highway 74 out of Morrison, is a typical open space park that encompasses acres of rolling hills and Ponderosa Pine. Like all local open space, this park is great for a quick trail run, fresh-air fix in the off season, or as an alternative to 3 martinis after a stressful day. The park is adjacent to Corwina park, which in turn abuts Jefferson County's Lair O' the Bear Park. The Bear Creek Trail, which runs through all three parks, is primarily used by mountain bikers.

Trailhead

Secondary parking area just past the trailhead

The trails in O'Fallon park, like Meyers Ranch on nearby highway 285, are a series of connected loops that can make for shorter or longer excursions. On this trip we started out on the 0.4 mile unnamed connector trail to the Meadow View Loop (unlabeled on the map), to a vista point at at 1.4 miles, then on to the West Ridge Trail, which IS labeled on the map, and then back to the car. While the map itself lacks detail, there are signs on the ground to guide your way.

Heading up the connector trail

Bear Creek

The winter of 2014 has been a series of Arctic blasts followed by hurricane force winds and 60° temperatures. This meant that the day we hiked this, there were plenty of dry patches intermixed with total ice from the inscesent freezing and thawing of the snow. We wore microspikes the entire time and were just fine although we joked that we should have brought along our ice axes.

Junction of the connector trail and the Meadow Loop

Heading up the left side of the Meadow View Loop

The first 0.4 miles of the trail are relatively flat. At the beginning of the Meadow View Loop, we stayed left and climbed a grueling 600 ft  to a small vista point with lovely views of the surrounding hills. A short distance back down the Meadow View Trail (at 1.9 miles) is a three-way trail junction marked by a large kiosk and trail sign. Here the Bear Creek Trail continues southward and an unnamed spur to the West Ridge Trail heads back toward the parking lot. If you choose the Bear Creek Trail at this point, you can catch the West Ridge Trail (at 2.3 miles) at it furthest extent and thus have a longer hike (see map at the bottom of the post).

View of Mt. Evans from the first view point

Trail junction with kiosk

At 2.8 miles is another vista point covered in rocky boulders. You can scramble all over the area or zoom upwards just another tenth of a mile to the high point of the route at 7,500 ft.

A typical dryer trail segment

On the West Ridge Trail

From this point it is all downhill. Note at 3.3 miles there is another junction with the West Ridge Trail going to the right and the Picnic Loop going to straight. There was no trail sign here, but we were hiking with someone familiar with the trail and so made the turn correctly. At 3.9 miles we were back to the Meadow View Trail and at 4.6 miles we finished the loop and started back on the spur trail to the car.

Blue skies and a small Aspen Grove

By the time we returned to the trailhead, the air was warm and the parking lot was a sea of mud. With the schizophrenic weather this season, you need to make sure you have spikes, skis, water wings, and hip waders on every outing.

The map to O'Fallon Park is hard to read, even when printed. The Bear Creek Trail is dark red and obvious, while the hiker only loops are in light purple and are overpowered by the darker contour lines. Our route is outlined in blue arrows.

Canyonlands: White Rim Overlook

Distance: 1.8 miles round trip
Elevation: 6,040 ft
Elevation Gain: 129 ft
Dogs: No, National Park
Bathroom at Trailhead: Yes
Date Hiked: 24 April 2014

Looking down on the White Rim Road from the White Rim Overlook in Canyonlands National Park

The Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park is filled with short hikes to stunning overlooks that gaze down on the valley below. The White Rim Overlook is one of the most spectacular of these.

The Trailhead. The trail heads straight out over this large slickrock section.

The La Sal Mountains from a sandier portion of the trail.

Our journey to the overlook began uneventfully, with a typical stroll over red sands and short slickrock sections. At the end of the trail however things got a little dicey. My hiking companion decided to work on her fear of heights by walking out onto the sandstone mushrooms that extended from the end of the trail. These pizza shaped rocks extended out into empty space like over-sized stepping stones across a creek. In this case, however there was 1,500 ft of air between each one.

Skeleton of a Utah Juniper overlooks the edge

The rocks my friend was jumping out on.

Not so nimbly moving  from rock to rock, my friend inched her way further outwards. I don't know who was more terrified, she or I. I kept nagging her to come back when she wanted ME to join her on this crusade. My eyes bugged out and I started inching my way back up the trail. It is fine to desensitize oneself of a phobia and quite another to do it in a location where death hovers just a foot away. A sneeze, a gust of wind, or a collapsing wall would have ended this psychological experiment for good.

Nothing but drop offs and open sky

A much safer place to lounge

I finally convinced her to return to terra firma and we lounged about admiring the stellar views. I relate this experience for those with children who have no fear and no sense, who will be equally tempted to stroll out onto these rocks. Heck, you may be too and more power to you! The White Rim Overlook is definitely a place to visit but I'll do it with my back to a size secure rock!

Canyonlands: Murphy Point

Distance: 3.5 miles round trip
Elevation: 6,040 ft
Elevation Gain: 350 ft (cumulative)
Bathroom at Trailhead: No, nearest one is the Visitor's Center
Dogs: No, National Park
Date Hiked: 24 April 2013

Looking west and down, down, down, from Murphy Point in Canyonlands National Park

The trail to Murphy Point in the Islands in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park is one of the few longer hikes one can take and still stay on the mesa. It traverses sand and slickrock with ever-changing, end-of-the-world views. Be forewarned! Looking off into that abyss is a transcendent Ozymandias kick in the solar plexus. One's whole life is reduced, in the casual stirrings of the desert wind, to meaningless drivel. Our weak brains can't even register the scale of the scenery without reducing it to a theatrical canvas backdrop. Your only hope is bring along sufficient chocolate chip cookies to stay grounded. A prolonged astral projection on Murphy's Point might just prove to be fatal.

Starting off in the deeply rutted road

Stay to the right here

Sagebrush

The trail to Murphy Point begins 8.6 miles south of the Visitor's Center along a deeply eroded dirt track that looks like it was made by a column of 10,000 cattle all racing to the edge of the world. A half a mile in the route splits. Stay to the right or end up on the much longer Murphy Loop/Hogback Trail, which descends off the mesa into eternity returning a few geological ages later.

Looking northwest at the rock formations obscured by haze

That is a cairn in the distance

After the dirt road, the route eventually switches to an easy "find the next cairn", slickrock trail along a narrowing neck of earth. Utah Juniper and Sagebrush dot the landscape and occasionnaly obscure the views. You can wander all over the area but realize there is nothing but 1,500 ft of open air between you and an "oh heck" moment.

Floating over the desert landscape

Sitting at the point looking down on the Murphy Hogback (that narrow elevation portion). You can see the  Murphy Trail as it travels out and around the area. Bring lots of water if you venture that far. 

I did not go anywhere near the edge and so arrived, sanity intact. We had the entire place to ourselves, which is always a treat. Canyonlands is big and it is easy for folks to spread out...and never to be heard from again...at least until the chocolate chip cookies run out. Then they congregate back at the Visitor's Center where they gobble up T-shirts and refrigerator magnets. So plan ahead and stay awhile at the end of the trail. It is not often we get to transcend our banal existence for something the truly sublime.

Mosquito Pass Road Snowshoe

Distance: 4 miles round trip
Elevation: 11,140 ft - 12,226 ft
Elevation Gain: 1,200 ft (cumulative)
Bathroom at Trailhead: No
Dogs: Off leash
Date Snowshoed: 18 January, 2014
Tags: #snowshoe, #leadville, #wintersports, #powerdays
Other snowshoes in the area: Treeline Loop,  Lower Mosquito Pass to 3B, Vance's Cabin

Mountains galore on a Mosquito Pass Road Snowshoe

There is nothing more sublime than a sunny winter day in Leadville, Colorado. With its mounds of whipped cream snow and American blue sky, this rustic mountain town takes on a sleepy, I-just-want-to-hibernate feel that is a welcome contrast to the nearby frenzy that is Ski Cooper and Copper Mountain. While the hordes are jostling for parking in lines two to three miles long, Leadville is devoid of humanity and filled with outdoor options for the back country skier and snowshoer.

Trailhead

Heading past mining ruins

Approaching the junction where County Road 3B, which splits off to the right (at the blue sign)

On this particular day we headed to Mosquito Pass Road (aka 7th Ave, and County Road 3), which heads east out of town. The road is plowed for several miles and ends at a berm where the road would otherwise twist around a small hillside. From here it is simple to park and cruise up the road for whatever distance you please or detour off onto County Road 3B.

At the gate to the Diamond Mine

The Diamond Mine

Having crossed the gully, the route heads up the hillside before turning west again.

This area is traversed by snowmobiles, which churn up the snow making snowshoes a better option than Microspikes but just barely. At 0.75 miles the road takes a sharp left at the gate to the Diamond Mine, a modern looking structure with a tall tower that is hard to miss. This turn, at least from a distance is veiled by the terrain and we wondered if the route actually deadened at the gate. Keep going and soon you will see where it goes.

Turning west again. The saddle is in the distance.

Looking across the valley at Mt. Evans

Continuing upwards

From this point on the route stays to the left of the valley and continues relentlessly up the hillside towards a saddle at 12,200 ft. Beyond the saddle, the road switchbacks precipitously up another 1,000 ft before cresting out at Mosquito Pass at 13,186 ft. We tend to go to the saddle which has lovely views looking north into the valley beyond.

The views of Mt. Evans and Mt. Dyer from the trail

Up and more up

Mt. Massive from higher up the route

On Mosquito Pass Road, the higher one climbs, the broader the views. Visible to the west in one continuous wall of ice and rock is Mt. Massive (14,429 ft), Mt. Elbert (14,439 ft), and Mt. Hope (of Hopeless Crew fame, 13,933 ft). To the south is a concave bowl of jagged rock bordered on the left by Mt. Evans (13,577 ft) and pyramid shaped Dyer Mountain (13,855 ft). In the valley below are two lakes Diamond and Mountain, which on this trip were invisible.

The lower part of the route is more gradual, climbing only 330 ft in the first mile, but gets steeper on the final approach to the saddle. At 1.5 miles Dyer Mountain comes into view. On the slopes to the left were several natural avalanches. The 2013/2014 winter has been particular dangerous with several deaths already reported. That did not detour one perky couple from skiing up the road, across the hillside and down again in graceful S-curves, their equally perky dog bounding down beside them.

With no where to sit but the road itself, we plopped down on inflatable butt pads and had our lunch wallowing in the stillness. There is nothing like a sunny winter day in Leadville, Colorado. 

Canyonlands: Mesa Arch

Distance: 0.5 miles round trip
Elevation: 6,040 ft -6,180 ft
Elevation Gain: 140 ft
Bathroom at Trailhead: Yes
Dogs: No,  National Park
Date Hiked: 24 April 2013

The view beneath Mesa Arch

Mesa Arch in Utah's Canyonlands National Park is the iconic location in Islands in the Sky district that every photographer tries to capture at sunrise. While we were not there to capture the light, the view was still stunning, so don't hesitate to swing by on your way to or from some of the longer hikes in the area. It is a short walk that almost anyone can do.

The arch is just ahead. Note the long line of people...and this was a less crowded time of day.

Looking down from the Islands in the Sky is always amazing. That is 1,500 ft down! Note there is nothing to protect you so don't lean too far over.

Looking down on the arch. You can see how exposed the approach is. A few minutes before there was a woman standing on the expanse. She was not exactly setting a good example for her children who looked on aghast.

Natural Bridges National Monument

Distance and Elevation Gain: Various see below
Dogs: Not allowed...National Monument
Bathrooms: Several locations
Date Hiked: 23 April 2013

Water and erosion, the two key elements that formed Natural Bridges National Monument

So what is the best way to torture your kids on a long drive through the deserts of Utah? Why just regale them with your in depth knowledge of geological processes! You can lull them into a state of catatonia by using terms such as deposition, weathering, mesas and hoodoos. Then, just as they are about to reach for their video games, you can yank them out of the car and prod them down the trails of Natural Bridges National Monument to see how well they listened.

To help you maintain your omniscient status with your kids, here is the difference between a natural bridge and a rock arch...shamelessly plagiarized from the National Park Service. Arches tend to form on cliff faces where wind, rain, snow, and ice slowly wear down the rock, causing chunks to fall out from beneath the arch. Bridges on the other hand tend to form in canyons where rushing water gouges out channels and meanders taking weaker rock with it. Delicate Arch in Arches National Park is the perfect example of the first process, while Sipapu Bridge below is the poster child for the second.

Map of the drive

You can see the bridges in the park via scenic drive (9 mile loop), a long loop hike at the bottom or via a series of out and back descents. We chose the latter because we were on our way to Moab and did not have all day to spend.

The individual hikes require scrambling down rock faces and ladders, which intimidated me at first since I am not fond of exposure until my friend reminded me that this was a National Park. So while I would not recommend the older set hiking these trails, anyone with a moderate level of fitness and stability can navigate them pretty well.

Sipapu Bridge
Distance: 1.2 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 500 feet

The trail to Sipapu Bridge is the gnarliest...by National Park standards... trail in the monument. It strolls along rock alcoves, down ladders, as well as slick rock faces with steps and chain link guides.  Unless you weep at the slightest incline or gaping maw of open air, you can do this trail. I did it with only a few white-eyed moments. The trip back up is much easier from a technical standpoint but is 500 feet in 0.6 miles, so it will get your heart rate going. Not a bad thing after sitting in the car for several hours.

Trailhead

Looking down

Returning via the alcove. I had my camera in my pack on the way down.

Heading back up the stairs

Climbing down one of the ladders.

View of Sipapu from a rock shelf detour. Be advised there is no guard rail!

Don't let this dinosaur stomp on you!

The journey downwards is filled with lovely views of rock domes, alcoves, and Gamble Oaks, while standing beneath this bridge I thought I was looking up at the neck of prehistoric sauropod. The desert varnish looked like scaly markings.

Katchina Bridge
Distance: 1.8 miles round trip
Elevation gain: 400 ft

Compared to the Sipapu Trail, the trail to Katchina Bridge is a piece of cake. It is mostly switch backs and stone steps with one steeper segment with handrails. At the bottom, you have to walk a tenth of a mile along a drive wash to stand beneath the arch. Nearby are the ruins of a small cliff dwelling with pictographs. I won't tell you precisely where, because people tend to disturb such ruins. We happened to be there when a National Park Archeologist and crew were working on the site, so we learned a little about the native cultures that once inhabited the canyon. I don't even want to know how they got up and down those walls!

Trailhead

Wide trail segment

Stairs

Slickrock bench

Note the handrails

In the canyon. The bridge is straight ahead.

Katchina Bridge

Owachomo Bridge
Distance: 0.4 miles round trip
Elevation Gain: 180 feet

Owachomo Bridge is the easiest to get to. Alas, we had run out of time and just saw it from the overlook.

Owachomo Bridge

Sipapu Bridge is the second largest in the U.S., just behind Rainbow Bridge. Even if you don't hike the trails, just seeing the scenery from the scenic drive is worth a visit. Just think how much you kids will love you for all that education you are cramming into their resistant brains!