Hike details:
Total mileage – 6ish miles (directions on where to turn were not clear, so we had a bit of extra steps)
Trail Head is at the Ceran St Vrain off of Overland
Level of effort – a nice walk in the woods – down to start, so therefore up to end if off. There is a bit of a climb near the end, and it gets warm.
I’ve been wanting to do this hike since I got my Front Range Hikes book! Finally! I booked a campsite at Peaceful Valley just 15-20 minutes up the road!
We left home friday, a little later than normal, but that was one of the reasons we started booking sites this summer, so we didn’t have to stress about having a campsite!
We had gotten a growler of our favorite beer the night before and once the tent was set up and the fire started, we tasted each other for a fabulous weekend together!
After dinner, it was time to try a new recipe mom and sent!
Replace the chocolate in a smore with a reces peanut butter cup!
Sady the final result was less than stellar… Perhaps our peanut butter cups were too cold or since i’m pretty particular about how toasted my marshmellow is… maybe i didn’t get enough melting!
The next day we awoke to mr paco hurling up what littlw was in his tummy – so my easing into the day was shot. We decided to just get crackin and get to the trail! Good thing we did, because when we started it was completely deserted and wonderful, but on the way back down it was getting crowded!
The trail starts by crossing the famous river! Ceran St Vrain!
Then we meandered through the wood, seeing all the national forest campsites that were pretty amazing, but we were not interested in the effort to get all your stuff that far from the car!
The route seemed pretty clear, the river was fabulous the boys enjoyed the walk, nice and cushy for their feet.
The wildflowers were everywhere, although the elusive rocky mountain orchid was not to be seen!
At one point we merged with a jeep road, and it turned a bit more rocky. Eventually we found the top and miller rock. It says there was a path around and a way to scramble to the top… we didnt’ really find it, but we did find a perch and an amazing view of the indian peaks wilderness!
The way back down was a little confusing to us – basically go left, just go left!! We weren’t sure and ended up meandering thru the woods trying to compare our route on the gps to the route in the book… nearly impossible till you are done! So we did a bit of backtracking and then found our way down the hill!
We took a break when we reached the river again and the boys hopped in and enjoyed the cool water!
It was a great hike, and we were really glad we did it early in solitude and much cooler than when we were leaving the hike!
Back at the campsite, after a bit of relaxing… the rain came in, and in and in… We put up our mesh sunshade… so it kept up mostly dry, but not as exciting or relaxing a nights as we had hoped. We gave up and got in the tent during a break in the clouds around 8pm! Party animals!
The next day i took a little jaunt with the boys in between rain drops and enjoyed the area! Super pretty and beautiful – hopefully it we end up there again, we’ll have more dry time to enjoy the campsite!
