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.

Pikes Peak

We slept in a bit after an early morning yesterday and had breakfast at the hotel.  Then we headed to North Cheyenne Cañon Park for some waterfalls in Colorado Springs.  We parked at the Helen Hunt Falls Visitor Center and could see the waterfall from the parking area.  Even with last night's storms, the water level was pretty low, but it was still a nice waterfall.

From here, we hiked up the Silver Cascades Trail.  The trail passed over the top of Helen Hunt Falls and there were more cascades upstream on North Cheyenne Creek.

A spur trail led to an overlook with nice views.  The rock face we could see was actually Silver Cascade Falls - and not much water.

We climbed up to the top of Silver Cascade Falls and had a nice view of the canyon even if there wasn't much waterfall to see.

A little further down the trail at one spot, the water spout was visible even in pitiful water flow.

We next tried to park for St. Mary's Falls Trail, but the parking area was completely full.  It probably wouldn't have been worth it, since St. Mary's Falls is upstream of Silver Cascade Falls.

So we decided to head to Pikes Peak for another 14er.  This one would be a lot easier as we could drive to the summit.  After paying admission, we first stopped at Crystal Reservoir for some nice views of the lake in the shadow of Pikes Peak.

Next, we made a quick photo stop at Brown Bush.  Driving as far as Devils Playground (mile 16), we had to park.  Due to construction at the summit that limited parking, they were only allowing a few cars to drive to the summit.  The rest had to take a shuttle.  It was a bit of a wait, but we saw a bighorn sheep passing by as we stood in line.

Finally, our shuttle arrived and took us to the summit.  We got some of their famous donuts that flatten at lower elevations due to the pressure differential.  Then we hiked around a bit at the summit to get some pictures of the great views from the top of America's Mountain.

When we were done up here, we took the shuttle back down and spent a little time climbing, scrambling and playing around at the Devils Playground.

It was a pretty cool area and we were still at rather high elevation.

Looking down, we could see Pikes Peak Highway snaking up the mountain.

After climbing a bit, we started heading back down the mountain and made a couple more photo stops at some of the scenic overlooks.

Near the exit, we stopped at Camera Point with a nice view of Ute Pass and Colorado Springs.  Then we left the mountain.

It was still fairly early, so we made a stop at Red Rock Canyon Open Space.  We started off hiking along the Sand Canyon Trail, passing beautiful red rock cliffs.

The hogbacks - narrow ridges of bright red sandstone - were really beautiful.

Not as big and impressive as nearby Garden of the Gods but a lot less crowded.  Shortly, we got on Contemplative Trail where there was an occasional view of Pikes Peak.

This trail ran right alongside the hogbacks.

Unfortunately, rock scrambling is prohibited.

This was my favorite part of the hike as the rock formations were really beautiful.

At the end of the trail, we turned on Quarry Pass and then Mesa Trail to make a loop back to the parking lot.  Along the way, we also had a great view of Garden of the Gods.

That was our destination for tomorrow.

It was starting to get late and we were getting hungry so we stopped for dinner at Colorado Mountain Brewing for our last dinner in Colorado.  Then we retired back to our hotel for the evening.