Clare Tone

By Suzanne Webel One of the newest and most exciting properties of the Larimer County Parks and Open Lands system opened to the equestrian public during the spring of 2002: the Devil’s Backbone. Although the trail within the park is only about 3.5 miles long, the scenery is forever. It’s absolutely worth the drive. Take Highway 34 west of Loveland. About four and a half miles west of Hwy 287, turn right at the sign for this park. (The former access, from Wild Lane just past the convenience store, has been eliminated). Restroom facilities and water (a drinking fountain and a hydrant for horse water buckets) are available here. The horse trail leads from the southwest corner of the trailer parking area (P-1) around a small meadow and then to the main trail. The trail will then cross the Louden Ditch, a large old irrigation canal built in 1878 to irrigate 12,000 acres of fields including a large hops farm. Other cultural features include several gypsum quarries, a plaster mill, and kilns in which fire clay was made into bricks. The trail passes gracefully from an easement across private lands to the public property at the south end of the cliffs. The Devil’s Backbone itself is a nearly vertical outcrop of 100 million year old Cretaceous Dakota Sandstone. Other, older rock units in the park include the Triassic Lykins Formation (red siltstone, pink limestone and white gypsum) and the Jurassic Morrison Formation (dinosaur-bearing mudstones). During the gypsum mining process several Cenozoic (much younger) mammal fossils were

By Suzanne Webel Having looked for some time for a campground designed for horses in the Roosevelt National Forest, I was rewarded to find a great one up north: Jacks Gulch.  There are five clean camp-sites in the horse loop, each with a pull-through to park your trailer, a picnic table, a flat space for your tent, and four pipe corrals for your horses.  Water and clean restrooms are nearby.  The cost is $31 per equestrian site at the time of this writing — per night, reservations accepted for two equestrian sites recreation.gov, 1-877-444-6777, additional fees and discounts may apply, after that it’s first-come, first-served.  We went during the week and had no problem getting a site; weekends might be a challenge. The campground is open from approximately May 26-November 6. Only certified weed-free hay is allowed (a list of certified hay producers is available from the CO Department of Agriculture). Dispersed camping with horses is also possible. From Longmont plan on taking two hours to reach the campground.  Travel 10 miles northwest of Ft. Collins on US Highway 287 to the junction of CO 14, at Ted’s Place. Proceed west 26 miles to the Pingree Park Rd (CR63E). Turn left and proceed another 6 miles (in first gear in many places) to the turnoff to Jacks Gulch. The horse-camping loop will be on your right, with other campgrounds to your left. After setting up camp, you can ride some old 4WD roads east of 63E, with lots of camp sites for, and heavy use by, four

If you have never been, this horse-only campground in Custer South Dakota is a must. A group of us reserved space at this stunning campground in 2014, and had to reschedule last year (VS outbreak) to go in 2015. Yes that’s right, if you want a space for your rig and/or a small cabin with bunks you need to think ahead at this lovely campground. You can arrive into the campground from two directions, and it is about a 6 hour drive from Boulder County. We headed up I-25 to Lusk and then North to South Dakota— it’s a pretty easy haul. Having had a late start we came in at dark. Winding through Custer State Park we passed a couple of buffalo off to the side of the road—they a big fellas. The stone work on the winding bridge roads is magical. We arrived at the campground around 9 PM got the horses quickly settled and tucked ourselves in, all excited about the next days adventure. French Creek is one of the loveliest places I have camped with horses. There is power to all sites, vaulted toilets throughout the camp, and one of the cleanest bath houses I have ever been in. Horses have pen groups placed near the rig sites and how easy is this—shovel your manure out the back side and they come by with a backhoe and place the manure in a large disposal carrier. Weed free hay is required and a water trolley is a good idea for moving water from the spigots or your trailer.

There are so many wonderful areas to ride here in the Salida area and we have been blessed with some outstanding local guides to show us around. This trip has been truly amazing. On Thursday we rode with a charming local gal, Kate and her wonderful mule on Friday. Kate showed us the Raspberry Gulch area and later on in the trip the Mt. Shavano area with her friend Elise. Raspberry Gulch is located in the foothills of Mt. Antero and Mt. Princeton. The terrain includes pine, piñon and meadows filled with wildflowers, simply breathtaking. On Friday Cheri arranged for us to accompany a local foxhound group. I have never been around foxhounds so I was really thrilled to have this experience and meet other local riders. We met in an area near Mt. Shavano, unloaded and tacked up. The hounds arrived soon after in the back of a horse trailer, they were radio-collared and released as we rode out. There were 17 foxhounds (two wanna-bees), the Master, three Whips and a Drag Rider. The hunt master let the dogs take care of their business and sniff around. Then they were gathered into a fairly tight back and any stragglers rounded up, it reminded me a bit of rounding up cattle. There were thoroughbreds and Irish warmblood crosses along with our Arabians, Azteca, and Quarter horse. Our position was at the end of the group. Mt. Shavano rose above us, and the sky was clear blue as we trotted across wildflower meadows and down dirt two tracks. We later meandered through aspens forests and rested with  the hounds as the horses sipped clear