I finally hiked to the top of Mt Manitou this weekend:
Those are the jars that hold the visitor log for the summit. Based on the frequency of entries (the older, almost full notepad went all the way back to 2007) I was probably the only person to make that hike this weekend.
Of course, if it were a more frequently visited mountain there might actually be a trail. As it is you take Barr trail to the fork with the sign for the experimental forest, then take the road that goes by there until it meets another road. Take a right uphill, then as the road starts leveling out look for an easy slope on your left and just go uphill from there. Eventually you get to the top (which is covered in trees so there’s not a good panoramic view), but just downhill to the east there’s a big rock that you can get up on for a view of the springs:
The biggest surprise in terms of animals seen was a deer:
She was between the tent set up by the creek and the group of campers up the trail at the experimental forest station (they had a fire going on one of the old concrete foundations). She watched (and listened to) me from a distance as I went by on the road.
There were lots of flowers in bloom, and I took enough pictures a couple actually turned out nicely:
This afternoon I hiked up Blodgett Peak. More accurately: today I got lost on a mountain but eventually made it to the top of Blodgett Peak.
The directions I had described how to get to the parking lot, what forks to take after leaving the road up the water tower, but ended with: “The trail gets faint and hard to follow. Proceed to the peak on one of the informal trails.” I should have recognized that as being a bad sign. Trails here tend to be granite gravel where the plants are worn away. Drainage washes also tend to be granite gravel with no plants. The map shows the trail loosely following a stream and approaching the peak from the north side. I followed a trail that split away from the stream (it had a couple switchbacks and couldn’t have fully been formed by washing out) until it entered a boulder field, at which point I lost it and just started climbing the 45 degree slope of the boulders. I ended up approaching the peak from the east having climbed up the south side of the ridge. The best part was that occasionally I’d see little cairns (intentionally placed piles of rock for markers) indicating that someone thought my route was a valid path (note the slope of the ground behind that pile of rocks):
Thankfully that route only required a lot of scrambling over rocks and no actually rock climbing to get to the top, though I think I would have gone much faster on a proper trail. On the other hand, I got some good views that weren’t as visible from the top, like this picture of the quarry a little south of Blodgett (also note the burned spots from the Waldo Canyon Fire):
The view from the top was rather impressive for only ~2500 feet of elevation gain from the trailhead:
The Air Force Academy airfield, Black Forest in the distance to the left, north Colorado Springs to the right.
TheAir Force Academy chapel and surrounding cadet area. This picture might have been taken before I got to the summit.
Pike’s Peak in the distance, Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar in the foreground.
Rampart Reservoir on the other side of more Waldo Canyon Fire burn scar.
On the way back down I actually found a well defined trail (at least until it got to where it blended in with the generally washed out terrain thanks to the burn scar). Where the trees were all burned and dead the underbrush tended to be doing rather well.
There was also plenty of wildlife to be seen. The magpies flew away before I got a good picture and the tiny birds living in the rocks of the boulder field were similarly camera shy, but I did catch some of the critters:
I saw a deer too, but that was in my rearview mirror in town while driving home. It made it across the street without getting hit.
I also decided it was worth standing in the middle of the stream (it was very shallow and my new boots are waterproof) to get this picture of the waterfalls:
As much as I’m sure it’s bloating the storage required for my blog I’m not regretting buying a new camera at all.
As the header picture indicates I hiked to over 10,000 feet elevation on Thursday. That’s half way from Manitou Springs to the top of Pike’s Peak along Barr Trail. The cabin was bigger than I expected (not that I really knew what to expect).
I got a new camera this week so now I have an actual zoom. That means I can actually get reasonable pictures of the birds I see along the trail. Unfortunately few of the more interesting ones were out and I’m still learning how to use the camera effectively, but I did get a picture of this one:
This is the top of rocky mountain, I was taking pictures from right next to the pipe sticking out of the big rock with a crack through the middle (you might need to enlarge the picture to see that detail):
I also went up the incline the morning of July 4th:
They had it all decorated for the 4th of July with flags and such spread along the trail-side. The flagpole at the top is new – someone must have hiked it up earlier that morning. It was also the most crowded I’ve ever seen: the shuttle bus was standing room only and it looked like all parking up Ruxton Avenue was full at around 8:00 am. It turns out 8:00 isn’t a great time to be hiking it because there’s practically no shade on the trail itself and it’s starting to get hot. Considering the sun comes up at like 5:45 it’s probably well enough lit at 6:00 and doubtless much cooler.
