North Cheyenne Waterfalls

Friday morning, we had a fantastic breakfast at Innhale then headed out to North Cheyenne Cañon Park southwest of Colorado Springs.  Parking at the visitor center, we first stopped for a picture of Helen Hunt Falls.  The lighting was poor and the water level was low, but still a scenic little falls.

Then we got on Silver Cascade Falls Trail and crossed the creek above the waterfall.

There were some nice cascades above the falls.

Continuing on the trail, I took a short detour out to an overlook with distant views of Silver Cascade Falls.

Further up the trail was a closer view of the falls and the spout in the rock face.  Unfortunately, the water level was pretty low.

At the top of the waterfall, we noticed some snow on the tributary coming down and climbed up to see the snow.

Eventually, we came out on Gold Camp Road.

From here, we got on Saint Mary's Trail (#624) to continue following Buffalo Canyon Creek upstream into Pike National Forest.

In another mile and a half, we came to Saint Mary's Falls.

There wasn't much water, but the falls was a beautiful in the snow.

Hiking back, we took a connector trail back over to Gold Camp Road.  I had noted another waterfall marked on the topo map just southeast of Saint Mary's Falls.  When we got close, I bushwhacked off the road down to where the waterfall was marked.  There was absolutely no waterfall but I did find part of an old truck.

Since there was no falls, we bushwhacked back up to the road and started heading back.

There were a lot of nice views from Gold Camp Road.

And there were even a few patches of snow.

When we got back to the tunnel, we headed back into the park.

We followed Silver Cascade Falls Trail back to the parking area.

We were pretty hungry by this point, so stopped at Colorado Mountain Brewing for a late lunch and drinks.  Before heading back to the hotel, we swung by Red Rock Canyon for a short hike.

Red Rock Canyon is similar to Garden of the Gods but much less crowded.  But still lots of gorgeous red rocks and cliffs.

We hiked down Sand Canyon and Contemplative Trails and scrambled around on the rocks for some views of the open space and Garden of the Gods in the distance.

This park seems to be much more popular with locals than the tourists.

There were some prickly pear cactus growing along the cliffs.

Some of the potholes in the cliff faces had some really unusual shapes.

At the end of Contemplative Trail we turned around and started heading back on Sand Canyon Trail.

There were a few more opportunities to scramble on the hike back.

We made it back to the car and then headed back to the hotel.

We had a special dinner at the hotel and hung out with the staff and other guests, watching videos and playing games.  Breakfast in the morning wouldn't be until 10, so we stayed up pretty late so we could sleep in.