Today (Wednesday, September 29th, 2021), I set out in the late morning from the base of Bear Creek Canyon with the goal in mind of seeing some fall foliage.
The day was cool from the outset, and I knew storms were possible later in the afternoon.
But the sun was shining as I quickly climbed the wide, smoothly-graded High Drive.
The first colors I saw were deep red ground flora, like a painter splashed red dots all the way up the hillside, less than a mile from the start. (Near the Section 16 loop connection.)
I could see blue skies above Specimen Rock.
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| Top: Red leaves on the hillside. Bottom: Specimen Rock is a prominent formation that is easily spotted and recognized from town. |
Although I had an idea of which direction I wanted to go, I did not have a set plan or route for the day. Usually when I head to the mountains, I have a goal or destination in mind... but sometimes I like to let the day take me where it wants to. I just wanted to find beauty and perhaps get a decent workout while I was at it!
I took Bear Creek Canyon Trail (#666) at the split, rather than continue on High Drive.
I ascended the open section of trail and came to the "dead end" where the trail is re-routed for the Kineo Mountain bypass. In his blog a while back, Jim had mentioned that there was quite a distance of sticks and branches placed in the path at this point by the forest service, perhaps for a quarter mile or so.
Well, some nice folks (or decommissioned-trail-invading monsters, depending upon how you look at it) went to great lengths to saw through a lot of the branches and trees, and the trail was quite easily navigable now.
It was on the decommissioned section that the colors really began to show.
Since I was in Bear Creek Canyon, where I'd been many a time before while it was officially open, I decided to do a route that I'd always wanted to do, but never got around to: Tenney Crags Trail.
I remembered reading quite a while ago on SummitPost that there *was* a trail leading up to Tenney Crags, *if* you could find it.
As I kept climbing up the canyon and passed the lovely falls, I figured I must have missed the Tenney Crags split by now, and I'd be best off just scrambling up the slope. (It could have just been an excuse to go off-trail climbing, one of my favorite things!)
I ascended a fairly steep slope, but not too difficult compared to some I've done in the past. It was pretty straightforward climbing, with small scree patches connected by woodsy sections and rock patches.
I soon came to the base of a cool-looking rock outcropping, with a great view to the west and the valley below Almagre Mountain.
It was about this time that it started hailing.
Ok, well it was actually one of my new favorite words - graupel. Although graupel is also called "soft hail," I don't buy that. It still hurt.
I tucked myself behind the rock outcropping for a few minutes and ate a snack while I waited for the weather to pass.
Luckily it was just a small patch, and it passed quickly. But now all the rocks were wet, and I wasn't quite sure of the best route to navigate to the actual summit of Tenney Crags, since I wasn't on-trail.
I figured I'd go around the hillside to the west and continue in a northerly direction towards the summit, and hope that I could find the actual trail on the way down.
That *sounded* like a good idea. But the west slope was filled with rocks and spiky little bushes. So many spiky bushes!
In fact, I had to downclimb the slope a little bit, a few separate times, in order to find a way through. On about my third short downclimb, I looked at my GPS and considered just throwing in the towel and downclimbing all the way to the creek and heading back.
But I convinced myself that the summit would be worth it, and pushed onward.
And I'm glad I did - because it wasn't much longer before I ran into a HUGE trail cairn.
YES!! The real Tenney Crags Trail! I could follow it to the summit now, and then on the way down, I could find where it connected to Bear Creek Canyon Trail so I'd know for next time.
The Tenney Crags Trail was really well marked. A cairn at every turn, and always one within sight.
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| Top left: The first cairn I came across. Bottom left: the gentle, well-marked Tenney Crags Trail. |
The trail meandered gently up the north side of the Tenney Crags summit, not even requiring any scrambling at all. And suddenly I was on top!
And what an impressive view!
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| Tenney Crags summit panorama. |
To the south was a huge crag with the storms in the mountains beyond.
To the southeast, Cheyenne Mountain with rain streaks.
To the west, Almagre Mountain lurks in the background, with Mt. Rosa featured prominently to the left, and the slopes leading up to Mt. Garfield and Mt. Arthur in the foreground.
Down to the east, storm clouds engulfed Colorado Springs, and to the north I could see the Blodgett and Ormes ridgeline, also streaked with rain.
But I just loved the view to the south! The steep cliffs and jagged rocks were what I came up here for.
However, shortly after the photo above was taken, a huge bolt of lightning struck in the valley below, and the thunder was instant. The graupel had made a return as well. And I was extemely exposed.
Time to go!
I safely descended back into the forest on the gentle trail, and was even able to jog at a pretty decent clip, following the cairns on my way down.
I was able to follow the trail all the way through to the drainage, no scrambling necessary. Of course, the graupel receded again and the sun came out. Colorado weather!
When I finally reached the Bear Creek Canyon Trail, I looked at my GPS and saw that I had been really close, like not more than a few meters away, from the actual trail. That whole scramble part of my journey had been essentially unnecessary, had I known the trail was literally around the next bend. But I guess I wouldn't take it back, anyway. A nice steep slope scramble is decent training.
I decided to go up towards Jones Park on trail #666 until I could cut over to #667 and then take the "legal" route back down.
And immediately upon coming into the Jones Park area, I was stunned by the best fall colors of the day!
All the aspens and grasses were really showing off. The colors were popping!
Every bend and turn in the trail was the most beautiful yet.
The gorgeous yellow meadow was impressive due to the high amount of rain we had this spring and summer. I remembered how bright green the grassy meadows were, only a few short weeks ago. (Here is a link to the Mt. Rosa/ FS 381 run I did, which has an example photo of these same grasses being a stunning green color.)
I eventually had to leave the lovely meadow, cross Bear Creek, and make my return.
As I descended trail #667, the rolling Captain Jack's trail, big thick clouds rolled in over St. Peter's Dome to the south.
I decided to take the Mt. Buckhorn trail, continuing on 667 until its junction with High Drive.
It may seem strange, but I actually like the gray, stormy, desolate feeling of a cloudy day on Mt. Buckhorn.
When I got to the High Drive saddle, I felt quite good energy-wise and in my legs. I cruised down easily on the dirt road. It makes me happy to have enough energy at the end of a run to actually enjoy the downhill that I earned! 🙃
This run had a little bit of everything. Scrambling, new trail discovery, views, graupel, smooth downhill, but most of all - those fall colors that we all enjoy to see at this time of year.
I got a little over 14 miles and 4500 feet elevation gain on this one. In the short-term, I need to get a couple good gym days in (I've neglected the gym for the last week at least - it's way too easy to let it slip by the wayside with so much else to do in this season.) We are also planning on going on a drive and walk with the kids soon, to catch some more colorful leaves. And if it works out, I hope to get one more mountain run in before the leaves fall off, possibly in the Mt. Herman area.
Thanks for following along 😀, and I hope you all are enjoying this season as well! Time to settle down with a decaf pumpkin spice latte, isn't it?
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