Hiking in Colorado

20 May 2008

Catamount Trail

Posted by kris under: Trails .

Name of Trial: Catamount Trail
Total Distance: ~ 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1300 feet
Difficulty: Moderate to Hard
Hike Type: Out and back
Starting Location: The intersection of Ute Pass Ave and Hondo Ave just off Hwy 24

We took Green Mountain Falls Rd off of Hwy 24 and parked our car at the intersection of Ute Pass Ave and Hondo Ave. Once we parked we hiked up Hondo Ave. for about a half of a mile until we reached the end of the road and a gate. We went trough the gate and continued along the road until we reached the base for some falls. This is where the trail begins. The first half of the trail is very rocky and requires a lot of stepping up and we mostly walked on rocks because there were so many. After over a mile of hiking this we reached the top and entered the Garden of Eden meadow which was very beautiful.  In the fall the colors of the aspens are wonderful and well worth the hike up to the Garden of Eden.

In the meadow we saw a nice creek running along the trail and some amazing rock formations along the side. This is the same creek that feeds into the waterfall at the start. The trail continued this way for a little while until we stared to move out of the meadow and into a section where there were a large number of dead trees all along the trail and some that ever crossed the trail. We had to jump over and duck under some of the logs in order to even stay on the trail. This eventually led to a road that brought us to the Catamount Reservoir. At this point we turned around and headed back.

The first part of the trail was challenging both going up and coming down because of the rocky terrain. The Garden of Eden Meadow we beautiful and you can see some of the photos that I took in my Photo Gallery. The fallen tree section was interesting because of the vast number of trees that have fallen in this area. Over all it was a good trail that I would like to go on again sometime.

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