Saturday, May 15, 2021
Bitterbrush Trail at Hall Ranch
We ventured into Lyons this weekend to do a little bit of hiking. Our original destination was the Antelope trailhead nad to do Antelope, Bitterbrush, and the Nelson loop, but the parking lot was completely full when we arrived. It was no surprise since it was about 10:30 in the morning and since that trailhead literally only has 5 parking spots. So we decided to drive to the Bitterbursh trailhead instead, a quick 5 minute detour. However, starting the hike from Biterbrush instead of Antelope added some length to the hike, so we decided to turn around at Nelson Loop, which ended in a 7 mile hike with 1100 feet of elevation gain. Even though there was more that could have been hiked, this was a pretty exhausting and lengthy hike for us, considering it's been almost a month since our last hike.
The trail itself was great. There was a nice mix of open meadows and some rocky terrain. There wasn't any tree coverage for shade, but we didn't need it since it was overcast the entirety of the hike. It was pretty humid though since we've been getting a lot of rain. The humidity was out of character for Colorado hiking and added an extra layer of difficulty to this 3-hour hike. Additionally, this trail is mountain bike central apparently, so every 20 feet we had to step off the path to let some bikes go by. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but there were a lot of bikes and it got pretty obnoxious. So for that reason alone, I don't think we'll be heading back to this area anytime soon.