Lovell Gulch Trail

From Hwy 24 at Baldwin (where McDonalds is located on Hwy 24 in Woodland Park, CO): Take Baldwin, which is the road that runs diagonally behind the McDonalds. Baldwin turns into Rampart Range Road. From McDonalds you will go about 1.9 miles. Look for the large yellow garage doors as this building sits next to the parking lot where you will begin your hike. The other side of the parking area is a neat little farm house with some log out-buildings. Park here and walk through the gate.

This hike starts by going past some city buildings and skirts private homes and property for about the first ten minutes. After only a few minutes you will come to a "Y". Both trails will meet up in a loop at the top of the short hill so it doesn't matter which way you go however, going to the left is probably preferred as it stays further from the house on the right. The "Y" is pictured next.

It's easiest to just remember to stay on the wide and obvious trail.

After walking a total of about 15 minutes or slightly more, you will come to a creek just down a short slop to your left. Cross the creek and you will see a sign for the Lovell Gulch Loop. This is where the hike actually begins. You can go either way but this hike will be for going the counter clockwise direction. Hence, go right.

The first mile is rolling meadows like this and is a great place to catch some rays. You canine companion will like the creek that this trail follows.

After the rolling hills and meadows, the trail will go left. Remember, you are making a big loop so do NOT cross the creek again after you have started. The trail will always bend left but there are a couple of spots that would allow you to cross back over to the right. Don't
 After bearing sharply left you will start a gradual ascent for about 3/4 mile.

I call this section the rocks and roots section as you see plenty of both.

The roots are of course covered largely in snow during this hike in March, but you will still feel the rough and often steep trail climbing up and up until you come to a forest service road and a gate up to your left. (Pictured next)

The trail continues by walking just to the left of the gate.

Look down the power lines as far as you can see and this is where the trail goes for the next 3/4 miles. The trail will eventually go right, after pretending to go left a couple of times before coming back to the power lines. When the trail finally goes right, into the trees you will be leaving the power lines section behind.

You will wind through the woods for a spell and then climb up two very steep sections coming out into the sunshine at the top of a knoll with great views of Pike's Peak!

Now you will descend quickly. I prefer to take a nice little cut off to the right just about 50 yards down the hill. Look for it or if you prefer, continue on the main trail. You will keep dropping sharply and keep going until the trail levels out and bears to the left. (At this point you may notice that the trail also goes left 120 degrees, this is where you would come out if you took the extended loop which I will cover in another post).

You may notice the trail marker here. As you level out you can know that the trail will end back at the creek where you started and you only have about 1/2 miles to walk, not including the pre-trail  hike back to the parking area.

Here is the creek. Hope you had a great hike. This is a super wildflower trail in the summer, so come on back!