Apache Falls

Thursday morning, we had one more breakfast at the lodge and then started heading east.  We got off the highway near Rye and headed to the Bartlett Trailhead in San Isabel National Forest.  Bartlett Trail  (#1310) headed up and soon we entered Greenhorn Mountain Wilderness.

There was snow on the trail in places, but in others it was starting to look like spring.

Bartlett Trail climbed up for more than 3 miles, but it wasn't too steep and there were a lot of spots to stop and enjoy the views.

There was more snow as we got higher up, but enough footprints on Bartlett Trail that it was easy to follow.

After about 3 miles, we turned left on South Apache Trail (#1311) and started heading down a ridge.  There were nice views of the ridge.

This trail is not so popular and there were some snowy patches with no footprints to follow that made the going slow.  But soon we rounded a bend and the trail was dry again.  There were some cool cliffs we could see from the trail.

The trail continued heading down until we reached South Apache Creek.

Here we turned right on Apache Falls Trail (#1357) and followed the creek up.  This trail was also very snowy and hard to follow, but we kept following the creek up and then followed a tributary up to Apache Falls.

It was a really spectacular waterfall.

Although the waterfall was flowing, a massive ice formation that resembled a castle had formed at the base.

The gorge around the falls was really beautiful.

We had lunch down here and enjoyed the waterfall.

Then we started making our way back.

It was a very steep climb back up South Apache Trail but we stopped a few times for the views.

Once back up to Bartlett Trail, it was all downhill from here, though a rather long 3 miles with a few patches of deep snow.

We made it back to the car around 630, so the entire hike took almost 8 hours.  It was more difficult because of the snow, but that ice castle at the base of the falls was really spectacular.

From here, we drove to Colorado Springs and checked into Innhale.

Bishop Castle

The first week of April, we headed to Colorado for a week of adventure in the Rocky Mountains.  We flew to Denver Thursday evening, arriving about 930.  After picking up our car, we checked into the Tru and went to bed.  Friday morning, we woke up and had breakfast.  Before leaving the Denver area, we made a stop at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.  On the drive in, we saw some mule deer along the road.

We parked at Lake Mary and had a nice view of the Rocky Mountains.

Hiking around the lake, there were a number of Canada geese.

We also spotted a lone cormorant.

Finishing up the loop, we got on Prairie Trail and headed towards Lake Ladora.  A western meadowlark with a beautiful song as in the brush.

There were a lot of ducks and coots on the lake.

From here, we hiked the closed road back to Lake Mary and crossed the floating boardwalk.

Across the boardwalk, a couple of noisy starlings were up in a tree.

We finished our hike up back at the car.

As we were leaving, there was a large herd of deer grazing right along the road.

We left the Denver and drove south on I-25 to Colorado City.  For lunch, we ate at Three Sisters.  It was a great meal and we ate outside with lovely views of Greenhorn Mountain.

After lunch, we drove to Bishop Castle.  As we parked, there was a beautiful Steller's Jay on a branch along the road.

The most impressive castle towered over the road.

Walking up to the castle, we ran into Jim Bishop who built the castle by himself over the past 50 years.  A very interesting man!  Then we started exploring the castle.  Narrow, steep, winding stairs led up the towers of the castle.

There was even a metal dragon on top.

We spent some time exploring up and down the castle's towers.

The stairways were all steep and narrow, some metal and some made of stone.

This would not be a great place for those with a fear of heights.  Here's a video descending one of the stairs.

The main room of the castle had beautiful stained glass windows.

Before we left, I climbed all the way to the highest tower with great views of the surrounding national forest.  Sandy didn't want to climb all the way up here.

I headed back down and we got ready to depart.  We said good-bye to Mr. Bishop and made a small donation - such a fun place.

From here, we drove back on CO-165 and made a stop at Lake Isabel in San Isabel National Forest.  At high elevation, there was a lot of snow on the ground and the lake was mostly frozen.  We first parked on the north side of the lake with a small viewing area of the lake.

The partially frozen lake was just gorgeous.  Then we drove to the south end of the lake to a small parking area and hiked across to the lake.

There is a trail around the lake but it was impossible to see beneath all the snow.  We followed some footprints, but soon the snow got pretty deep.  We fell through in a couple spots that were more than knee deep.  Not making much progress, we headed up to the road through a beautiful aspen forest.

We followed the road to the Lake Isabel Picnic Area.  It was pretty snowy here, but we found a way down to St. Charles River.

It was a pretty area in all the snow.

We had a little snack here then started hiking back.  Near the road, we followed the sledding path back to the lake.

From here, it was another 2 hour drive to Alamosa.

We checked into the Holiday Inn Express and got a little snack pack as Guest of the Day.  They also had a coupon for local vendors so we went to Colorado Farm Brewing for dinner.  We got a pizza from the food truck and had some drinks before heading back to the hotel for the evening.