April 21, 2021

By Tim Briese

8.2 miles, 1600’ elevation gain, 5:00 roundtrip time

Boulder County, Colorado is widely known for its disproportionate share of outdoor and fitness enthusiasts and the county has obliged with the creation of numerous open spaces all over the county. Today my daughter Emily and I did a popular loop hike in the Walker Ranch Open Space in the foothills southwest of Boulder. We drove Flagstaff Road which climbs steeply up into the mountains from the city and followed it for a few miles to a big trailhead parking area for the open space on the left side of the road. It had just snowed and it was cloudy and chilly today, which heightened the sense of adventure. We took off and proceeded to hike the loop in a clockwise direction. After some ups and downs across open slopes and through the woods the trail descended to Martin Gulch and followed a little stream for a ways. We hiked through as much as eight inches of snow, and the fluffy white snow on the trees made for an enchanting walk.

a snowy walk in the woods

We encountered a few other hikers and runners on this snowy day but not many. We saw a few deer at various places along the way. We reached a rugged scenic canyon through which South Boulder Creek flows and made a sharp ascent of several hundred feet on wooden steps to higher terrain above.

in the south boulder creek canyon

april in colorado

The trail went for a couple of miles through Eldorado Canyon State Park before looping around and descending back down into the South Boulder Creek Canyon.

back in the canyon

After a scenic hike along the river the trail climbed back up to the parking area where we had started. This was a fun outing with my daughter on an exhilarating wintry day.