Paint Mines (Calhan, CO) 7/21/12 (First of Shahr Ramadan)

Nice trail out on the plains - the Paint Mines are definitely worth seeing at least once.  But be warned, in summer they can be an oven and get dangerously hot.  

Castlewood Canyon 7/19/12

Castlewood Canyon is a beautiful state park that is relatively easy to access from both the Denver and Colorado Springs metro areas - you don't have to drive hours in the mountains.  We've covered pretty much every trail in two visits, and it can be done in one with a bit of planning.  There are homestead ruins, the ruins of the dam that burst in the 30's (I think), a beautiful bridge for the highway, and nice wildlife like crayfish, frogs, deer, and I even saw a Rainbow Trout swimming upstream apparently all the way from the Cherry Creek Reservoir.  This is one everyone needs to see at some point.

Rained-out Hike (Pancake Rocks) 7/17/12

Headed up to Horsethief Falls, but did not get on to Pancake Rocks because a long hard rain came and didn't go.

Howard Gulch, The Horseshoe, Mt. Dewey Trail (Green Mountain Falls) 7/10/12

The gulch isn't really a trail but is used as such - some of our crew didn't like that, but I didn't mind.  The Mt. Dewey Trail just kind of dead ends and we wished it would go back to the road without us having to backtrack.  We had to use the Gulch access because other access points to the Green Mountain Falls area trails were closed due to this summer's fires.  Green Mountain Falls is a neat little mountain community - definitely stop for lunch in town, you can walk around the lake there, as well.

The Crags 7/5/12

The Crags is a classic Colorado hike  - probably one of the most popular in Teller County.  It is not terribly long - down in the 4-something range or so, has some steepness but not too much, is well-used by many people, and has very great views at the end.

Cheyenne Mtn. State Park N and S Talon Trails 7/3/12

Considerably more hazy than the last time we did this hike - may still be fire smoke, I'm not sure.
And it was hot.  But we had a good long (approx. 9 mile) hike.  The Talon Trails are the ones to take to get to the current high elevation access in the park - if/when the connection to go up on top of Cheyenne Mountain is made, that will change.  The Talon trails are nice because they're never excessively difficult even though there is some incline involved, and it involves a fair amount of treed terrain.  The overlook to Cheyenne Mountain is definitely worth going to - that vantage point looks prehistoric and wild - very neat, especially for still being at relatively low elevation.

overlook area