Camping @ CMSP ... Day 2

The winds sure howled hard and loud overnight and well into the morning. Luckily, our north-south orientation in site 10 meant that we were not rattled in the motorhome. The good news? Thanks to the winds coming from the north, by the time we were up and about, the skies had been mostly cleared of the wildfire smoke that plagued us all day yesterday.

The temp was indeed down from the miserable highs of yesterday. In fact, it was only 55F when we woke up, but we were warm and cozy inside the Cruiser. Even though it was only about five degrees warmer by the time we set out for our hike, we were quite comfortable wearing light windbreaks over our t-shirts. A beautiful blue-sky day with sunshine to explore Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

The land on which the park sits was once the sprawling JL Ranch on which John Lytle ran cattle. He was far from the first to inhabit the land, however. Before him, the Ute, Comanche, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Sioux all hunted buffalo and other game here.

It’s thought that there used to be some 20-30 million bison roaming North America back in the day. But then the west began to be settled and the bison population suffered greatly. They were heavily hunted not just for their hides and meat, but also for sport ... being shot from trains no less. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was estimated that the population was down to some 1,000 heads.

So, I guess it was no surprise that we didn’t see nary a bison on our hike today. (Though, admittedly, in northern Colorado there is a herd that is flourishing). In fact, we saw very little in the way of critters today. Only the western fence lizard, with its brilliant blue belly, lingered long enough for a photo op. The wild turkeys were well into the trees when we spotted them, and though bird songs accompanied us along the way, they remained out of sight in the trees and bushes. No bears or cougars either. At least there were ample wild flowers to exercise my shutter finger.

Of the 23 miles of trails at CMSP, today we opted for the 4.2-mile Blackmer Loop. To get to it, we did about 1/2-mile each way on the Boulder Run trail. Plus, we had to walk from our site to the trailhead, so I am guessing that our feet got nearly 6 miles of exercise today.

Rated moderate, with a 482-foot elevation gain, the trail was fairly easy, though it was strewn with rocks and tree roots that we had to keep our eye on. The steepest section turned out to be towards the end, but I don’t think it would have mattered had we started clockwise as that section was pretty much down most of the way. One way or another we would have had to climb.

Blackmer Loop runs mostly through the forest — pine and oak prevalent. Even with the temp only in the 60-65F range, the shade felt good. The open meadow sections afforded us views of Cheyenne Mountain. Thus we ended up being entertained even as we got our exercise. There were mountain bikers on the trail ... infrequent and very good about announcing themselves and how many more were behind them. We ran into a few other hikers, too ... but they were very few and far between, so we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Peaceful ... beautiful.

It was almost 1:00p when we returned to the Cruiser. The wind had died down in our absence. We debated having lunch at the picnic table, but with no shade it felt a tad too warm ... even though the temperature had not even reached 70F yet. No matter. We enjoyed tea at the picnic table later in the afternoon. And I even managed to sit outside to write this footprint.

We’ve decided on a six-mile hike for tomorrow ... if weather permits. The forecasters have been mentioning the “R”[ain] word for two days now, but we’re keeping fingers crossed that the wet stuff will at least hold off until the afternoon. In the meantime, we’ll continue to enjoy a relaxing afternoon on the patio of site 10.Read more