Archives-Trails History

Our favorite? If you would like to escape the sizzling summer days on the plains, discover the diverse cooler vegetation at Caribou Ranch Open Space. Caribou Ranch Open Space is located on County Road 126, approximately two miles north of Nederland. Horse trailer parking is available ONLY at the Mud Lake Open Space (turn left off CR 126 near the Peak-toPeak Highway) and enjoy the short ride from Mud Lake to Caribou. Car parking is available both at Mud Lake and about 1.2 miles up CR 126 at the actual Caribou Ranch trailhead. The 2,180-acre property offers visitors a rich tapestry of wetlands, meadows, streams, forests and woodlands. Caribou Ranch is a haven for wildlife where 50 species of mammals could potentially live and/or travel through the open space annually. This represents nearly half of all mammal species found in Boulder County. The most common ungulates are elk and mule deer. A moose group has been observed on portions of the property in the past two years. Also, signs of mountain lion, black bear, bobcat, coyote, red fox, marten, and short-tailed weasel have been found. This open space also includes the Switzerland Trail railroad grade, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Mining began at the Blue Bird Mine complex in the 1870s and operations followed the boom and bust cycles of the industry until the 1960s. In the early 1900s, Blue Bird became a tourist destination, a “whistle stop” during the summer months to a growing demand by city dwellers who wanted to

WILLIAM FREDERICK HAYDEN PARK ON GREEN MOUNTAIN By Suzanne Webel Whew. There is some controversy over how Green Mountain itself received its name. In the early spring, perhaps, the grasses up there might provide a flash of green, but for the rest of the year it’s pretty much a tan prairie. A member of the William Frederick Hayden family, which donated or sold many acres to the the park, claims that it was named after an early local postmaster named Greene. The Rooney family, which once owned 10,000 acres in the area and still owns the ranch across the road (now C-470), claims that it got its name from the once-abundant green cedars that covered the slopes. Early surveys show that it was once named “Hendricks Mountain” after a surveyor who worked in the area with Capt. Edward L. Berthoud. There was also a famous (unrelated) Hayden Survey of the west. In any case, it’s Green Mountain now, it’s huge (2,400 acres), it’s the second largest park in the City of Lakewood’s Open Space program, there are lots of trails, horses are welcome, and it’s worth checking out. Take C-470 south of I-70 to Alameda Parkway. Turn east and proceed about 3 miles to one of two adjacent trailheads (P-1; one was full but the other wasn’t, on the day we went). There is also a trailhead on the west side of C-470, but it means crossing high above this busy highway on a sort of aerial bridge, and I didn’t even want to investigate doing

HESSIE TO LOST LAKE TO WOODLAND LAKE, WITH “ONE COOL DUDE” By Suzanne Webel Poor Hessie. In all the research I’ve done I haven’t been able to learn if there once was a maiden named Hessie for whom this tiny gold-mining community west of Nederland was named, or what. In any case, she’s famous now, because the Hessie townsite is one of the most popular jumping-off points to many beautiful trails in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. As a result of Hessie’s newfound popularity, there is no longer anywhere to park a horse trailer near the trailhead (P-2). While we used to be able to park in the small, bumpy meadow near the townsite, beavers have built dams that flood the access road and the Forest Service likes it that way. There is no place to park anywhere along the narrow, steep shelf road up to Buckingham Park, either. Therefore, consider parking in the town of Eldora, where you may be lucky if you don’t have the NIMBY neighbors call out the posse against you. The main road will bear left but you should go straight onto Klondyke Road, a dirt road with adequate room to park somewhere along it (P-1). Ride through town and up the unpaved road a mile and a half to the Hessie junction. Instead, turn left (down the hill) and ride through the flood created by all those zealous beavers, to the actual Hessie trailhead. In its infinite wisdom, Boulder County purchased a large piece of land (called the “David Property”) behind

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