Walker Ranch, Boulder, Colorado

Darcy and I drove to another beautiful open space in Boulder County on Saturday in order to continue her quest for me to see a bunch of new single track in Colorado this summer.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining; it is very fun riding in new places.  Walker Ranch is almost right behind the famous Flatirons, a spectacular rock formation overlooking Boulder.  Here is a weird site, but with a good photo of the Flatirons.  One drives up the mountainside immediately adjacent to the Flatirons on a very steep and switchback filled road.  It is a very dangerous drive, mainly due to rubber-neckers such as myself who want to drive and sightsee at the same time.

Another nice map brought to us by the very well run City of Boulder Parks Dept.  Looking at it, one can see Boulder Creek running through the property, with a loop trail crossing the creek twice.  This means a bunch of vertical gain and loss on the trail.  Either it is suffering time or adrenaline time.  There isn't much else besides long descents or ascents.  Am I repeating myself?

Here is the first crossing we did, at the spot marked "Falls" on the map.  Nice bridge.  Nice bridge to a very steep set of stairs.  Nice bridge to an increasingly ridiculously steep nice set of stairs, where one small misstep sends the bike carrier to their doom!

Darcy is at the right.  Check out the guy below her using his hand to steady himself on the steps.  Steep.  Throw in 6000 to 7000 feet of altitude, and the bike schlepper can be somewhat unsteady on the feet!

This is a view of the Flatirons, from the less common westerly point of view.

The wildflowers are still out in force here.  Indian Paintbrush and a sort of mountain gaillardia.

A hillside of flowers can make the trail disappear.

And last, a nice rock formation near the top of a very long climb back to the trailhead.