We hiked around Castlewood Canyon State Park this year on my birthday. This is one of my favorite State parks in Colorado. There are nice mountain views, canyons, and a creek. This park has been called the best for accessibility in Colorado, since there is pretty extensive paved trail which goes through a good bit of the park.
The park has two separate entrances, on this day we arrived at the East entrance, and hiked from the farthest parking lot. We started on the Lake Gulch trail, which is a nice mostly declining walk that takes you from the top of the park down to the creek that goes through the entirety of the park. There are some cool views along the way of the Rocky Mountains. At the end of the trail you reach the creek, which as far as I can tell is only passible in the Winter time. I haven’t hiked this area any time other than winter because of my fear of rattlesnakes, which this place has a ton of.
The Lake Gulch trail eventually leads to the creek, which was one of the icier parts of the trip. Tommy and I both fell, and went sliding just short of the water. After crossing, there is an overlook on the other side of the creek, which has a nice view to watch others do the same fall you just did. It seems like every 4/5 people lost their footing in that area. Stacey and Lucy somehow managed to navigate the icy areas without falling all day.
Across the creek, the trail forks and you can choose to go visit the dam, or take the Inner Canyon trail. We opted for the dam trail, to go see the old Castlewood Canyon Dam. I wrote up some history behind the dam here. After the dam trail, we headed back towards the Inner Canyon trail. This trail goes up and down the canyon following the creek. There are a few nice cave-like rocks to explore along the way. This trail also conveniently brings you back to where we had parked. Overall it was great hike, icy at times, muddy at other times, but a very enjoyable way to start the year.
The trail info for what we hiked, from the Castlewood Canyon State Park website:
Inner Canyon and Lake Gulch Trail
- Overall:1.16 miles, moderate
- Lake Gulch trail: 0.80 miles, moderate
- Inner Canyon/Lake Gulch Loop
- Permitted uses: Foot only
- Miles paved: 0
- Miles non-paved: 1.96
- Total distance: 1.96
- Usage: High
- Degree of difficulty: Easy to Moderate
- Elevation: 6400
- ADA accessible: No
- Comments: Takes visitors into the canyon by the creek and back out for nice views
- Pets: Yes-on a leash
The Dam Trail
- Overall: 0.35 mile, moderate
- Permitted uses: Foot only
- Miles paved: 0
- Miles non-paved: 0.35
- Total distance: 0.35
- Usage: Medium
- Degree of difficulty: Moderate
- Elevation: 6400
- ADA accessible: No
- Comments: Takes visitors around the Castlewood Dam ruins.
- Pets: Yes-on a leash
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