Devil's Backbone Hike

March 18th, 2012

It was a nice spring day so we decided to take short hike in nearby Loveland.  We have driven by the Devil's Backbone open space so many times on our way to Rocky Mountain National Park, but we had never actually stopped there before today.  We weren't too sure of what we'd find, but the rock formations always looked interesting from the road.  We pulled into the parking lot and started hiking down the main trail. It starts out with some pretty expansive views.

Beginning of the trail

We continued on a little ways and started to see some of the rock formations that give the park its name.



Cool rock formations

Unfortunately the area by the arch was closed due to nesting birds, so we couldn't walk up to there, but it was still neat to see from a distance.

We continued on the trail and saw some different scenery.  The cactus were everywhere.

Desert Environment

Eventually, the trail began to climb a little and we ended up with some nice views of Long's Peak in the distance.

Long's Peak behind the rocks

There are numerous routes in the area that lead to other parks, but since we had only brought one car, we had to make this a loop hike.  We ended up turning around about 3 miles in. 

More rock formations



Views from the trail


More rock formations

Overall, it ended up being a nice 6 mile hike that everyone enjoyed.  It was also great that it was so close by to home, so it made for a short drive and we were back home early in the day.
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