Castlewood Canyon, part 1
August 24
Lake Gulch and Inner Canyon Loop
Trailhead: Lake Gulch Trail (Canyon Point Parking Lot, Castlewood Canyon State Park)
Distance: 2.0 miles (easy)
What's a better way to spend a lucky day off than hiking basically every trail in a nearby state park?? Castlewood Canyon is about 20 minutes away from our new apartment, so I've been itching to explore it as much as I can. With most of the trails under 4 miles, I figured I might as well do a few of them! I started the morning off at the east entrance, the main entrance, with a quick two mile loop through the canyon.
This trail has pretty spectacular views of Pikes Peak off to the south, and when I was hiking there were tons of planes taking off from the Air Force Academy (I had a stranger identify a few as F16s). Other than the views of Pikes, though, this half of the loop was a little underwhelming.
As soon as I reached Cherry Creek, though, I got so excited. It was beautiful! Everything was so green and the trail was rocky and covered in oak trees. It was exactly what I wanted out of the hike, and I was glad I ended up hiking it in the direction that I did. If I had started with the Inner Canyon Trail, I would have been so disappointed!
Overall it was a good hike. I would love to come back here in the winter for a quick escape when I'm feeling cooped up or maybe for a few trail runs once the temperatures start to drop.