Great hike this weekend at Castlewood Canyon. We started our hike at the Lake Gulch Trailhead from the Canyon Point parking lot. We followed Lake Gulch about .8 mi to where it meets up with the Inner Canyon trail and the Dam Trail. We took the Dam Trail (that's funny) .35 mi to Rimrock trail. This followed the eastern top of the canyon and we had some great views. Staying on the trail for about 2.14 mi we completed the entire top of the canyon wall. We then popped on Creek Bottom trail which took us along Cherry Creek back up to the Dam Ruins Historic Site (1.7 mi). We climbed up and over the dam and found that Dam Trail (still funny) again and took that back to the Lake Gulch, Inner Canyon, and Dam Trail intersections. We took the Inner Canyon trail back up to the parking lot (1.16 mi). Along the way we found some poison ivy but did not touch it!
The Photos
The ascent.....actually just rocks we could climb
The Dam which is near the Dam Trail (still cracking me up.....)
On the canyon top, thinking, "Wow, now we have to hike down and all the way back"
Mandi taking a break, dangling her feet about about 70 feet up from the first ledge.
Just doing some trail maintenance...
We found shade in the dam tubes
Oh oh......
To see all the photos go here
Date: 6.25.11
Location: Castlewood Canyon State Park
Trail: (loop) Lake Gulch, Dam, Rimrock, Creek Bottom, Dam, Inner Canyon
Hiking Partners: Patti, Mandi, Katherine, Inu the dog
Packs: hydration packs for all
Recommended Maps: State park trail map
Distance Hiked: ~6 miles
Total ascent: 1151 ft
Total descent: 1158 ft
Difficulty: moderate, mostly due to distance. would be hard during a real hot day. only big elevation gains are on Rimrock trail ascending and descending the canyon but not too bad.
Departure time: 10am
Return time: 4pm (we were slow)
Weather: Perfect, sunny day, temperatures in mid 80s, dry, mild breeze
The Route
