Archives-Trails History

By Suzanne Webel My personal involvement with this property goes way, way back. Having ridden the entire Heil Valley Ranch property with the Heil family and their neighbors many years ago, and having taken friends to ride the Heils’ livery horses there, and having roamed the whole ranch by myself with nothing but my crazy OTTB gelding and a bunch of elk for company, and having represented BCHA on the North Foothills Open Space Advisory Committee, and having been one of the volunteers who helped build the new trails, and having testified often and frequently before the Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee and the Board of County Commissioners about the importance of keeping the ranch open to horses with reasonable trails and off-trail access, I can say, with understatement, that the whole process of finally getting this property open to the public has been worth every minute. This ranch is one of the prime parks in the County’s open space system. The property comprises approximately 4,800 acres, ranging from dry “red rock country” to sunny foothills pine forests to mountain meadows to subalpine firs and spruces on the shady north-facing slopes. Wildlife includes elk that migrate across the property on their annual trek to Nelson Road, wild turkeys that were originally imported here so they could then be hunted, mountain lions that now keep the deer population from exploding, and a variety of other birds and small mammals. Historic activities included quarrying, ranching, hunting, a horse rental business, and even “renaissance questing weekends” (in which […]

By Suzanne Webel Many years have elapsed since my original trail log of Marshall Mesa, and a lot has happened there in the meantime. The grand opening of the new Marshall Mesa Trailhead seemed like a good impetus for revisiting an old friend. In the interest of giving positive feedback wherever possible, let me hasten to praise the City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks for some good things they’ve done here. If you remember the funky liquor store and the tiny Ethiopian restaurant that used to draw crowds to the east side of the intersection of Highway 93 and Eldorado Springs Drive, you’ve just “dated” yourself. If you remember the bizarre black office building that sprouted overnight like a mushroom in their place but was never occupied, in a few years you, too, have become “dated.” In a fit of inspiration, OSMP bought the condemned building (it sat on burning and unstable coal mines), demolished it, and in 2006 built – TA DA! – the first (for them) modern, functional trailhead complete with landscaping, picnic tables, restrooms, water, and – drumroll, please – designated pull-through horse trailer parking! This is truly the highest and best use of that property, and we hope it remains a nice trailhead (P-1) for years to come. It replaces the old Marshall Mesa Trailhead, which was barely a wide place along the road, where there were none of the above amenities but lots of potential for accidents and conflicts (this old access point is now closed). More than 55

By Suzanne Webel Thank you, Fort Collins!!! … for yet another miracle. Bobcat Ridge is the latest in a series of large open space acquisitions north of the border – more than 2,600 acres of mixed grassland, shrubland, ponderosa forest, red rock cliffs and granite outcrops, homesteads and meadows, that were purchased in 2006 and opened to the public in – gasp! — less than a year! The property opened in 2007 with about 17.6 miles of trail, and they’re still building more. In fact, during our ride at Bobcat Ridge in the fall of 2008, we followed a Sweco trailbuilding machine as it carved a new trail across a meadow.   Our horses left the first hoofprints. Highway 34 is the main route from Loveland to Estes Park. Follow it west (past the new trailhead for Devil’s Backbone) to its intersection with CR 27, just before a hogback causes the road to make a bobble. Turn north and proceed past sandstone quarries on the left and fruit orchards on the right, until you reach a small “Bobcat Ridge” sign pointing left at West CR32C. Duck west through a notch in the large hogback and you’ll arrive at the surprising and secret valley that is Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. Proceed past the old homestead barns and corrals, past the new vehicle parking lot and restrooms, to the expansive trailer parking area. There is space for six trailers to pull through, and even a spigot for horse water! The first time I went, in August 2008, I had