Section 16, Palmer Loop, Colorado Springs

6.43 miles with 1,453 feet of elevation

Another week, another local trail that I’ve never been on. This week, we hiked in Bear Creek Cañon Park, technically outside of Colorado Springs proper. While not quite as lovely as Red Rock Canyon, it was the next logical step in my training. So this set is made up of the pictures captured along the way, of the compositions or light that caught my eye while trying to catch my breath.

The rocks to the lower right are the same rocks from last week, the ones where I said I couldn’t capture the scale. Then you can see the rocks moving through the center to the upper left - that’s Garden of the Gods again. This picture is worth a zoom in to see the detail of the area.

On this part of the trail, we were parallel with Tejon Street (downtown), the same street I captured at night recently. If you zoom in, you’ll see a large white dome in the distance - that’s the cycling velodrome. Right in front center is a fancy looking building. That’s the US Olympic and Paralympic Museum.

This was the view south from the top of the trail, around 7800 feet in elevation.

I captured these rocks (in the distance) quite a bit. We kept seeing glimpses of them along the trail. We eventually ended up on the other side of this valley.

South Colorado Springs

Always waiting for me… so patient…

High Drive cuts along the left foothills while the atennas to the right are on top of Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD). In the first few years in town, we drove my parents up High Drive in a Nissan Altima. I have no idea how we made it, LOL. It’s been closed to cars since 2019.

This lil tree fell and landed perfectly above the trail.

As we descended, we ended up in the trees. The light was perfect.

Beautiful, but I was more grateful for the shade. The high on this day was in the 90s, so it was already blazing hot at 9 am.

The end of the trail before walking High Drive back to the trailhead. So many wildflowers in this area, but the light was harsh and awful.

… I hope.

Cheers.