Campground Review and Hiking Report: Cheyenne Mountain State Park, Colorado Springs,CO

After a 10 day stay, Cheyenne Mountain State Park has become our favorite state park to date!

Opened in 2006, the park has 51 full hook up sites located on four loops which are tiered up the side of Cheyenne Mountain. All sites have paved parking, tent pads, picnic tables and BBQ pit. There are an additional 10 walk-in tent sites and some of the RV sites include more than one tent site. There is decent separation between most of the sites. Some sites have a slope at the entrance, but the pad for every site looked level.

Amenities include multiple picnic areas, playgrounds, archery range, 20 miles of trails (dogs not allowed on trails). Restrooms with coin operated showers are available on each loop and the Camper Services Building includes a small inexpensive laundry room. Programs such as yoga and birding walks are held regularly. Verizon signal was decent, especially using our booster. There is a recycling bin at the camper services building.

We had site #2 in the Raptor Glen loop, the loop highest on the mountain. Our 180 degree view to the East looked out over the Colorado Plains for at least 50 miles. To the West we had an unobstructed view of Cheyenne Mountain. Birds and rabbits frolicked in the gambel oaks flanking our sitting area, deer passed through often as they foraged the hillside. Turkey walked the streets early in the morning.

We stayed here in early May during a very rainy stretch. We experienced thunder storms, hail, snow and even some sun. We had amazing views of the storms thanks to our perch on the hillside. The campground was at least 3/4 full each night and there were very few daytime picnickers so the trails were lightly used (once they dried out, which happened more quickly than we expected because there's a lot of sandstone around here).

The Hiking
I ran out of room on my Colorado Springs wrap up post and still want to share some photos from our excellent hikes here at Cheyenne Mountain State Park. We probably hiked at least 15 of the 20 miles of trails.

We loved the variety of trails here. There are short, easy trails near the campsites, perfect for the last stroll of the day. Many trails go through meadows where turkey and deer forage along the fringes in stands of gambel oak, then up into ponderosa pine, douglas fir, white fir and rocky mountain juniper forests with views out to the plains or up into the granite boulders on Cheyenne Mountain. Many different loops are possible. Prairie dogs gambol in the lowlands of the park. Coyote, bobcat, bear and mountain lion frequent the area.

We loved this state park and would definitely stay here again. Stays are limited to 14 days in a 45 day period. Colorado charges a $7 per day entrance fee on top of the nightly camping rate unless you hold a CO state parks pass.

Our site, #2.

Our view to the West.
No campsites behind us.

Deer up the hill behind our site.

Site #3.
Back in sites #4, 5 and 6 are beyond.

Site #10 with a panoramic view East.

A back in site.

The camper office and showers/restrooms/meeting room/laundry room/playground.
Another shower/restroom up the hill to the left.

A view towards Cheyenne Mountain and the campground (barely visible atop the right flank) from the Sundance trail.

Prairie dogs on the lowlands.

Coyote in a meadow.

Pygmy nuthatch.

We saw numerous turkeys and never failed to smile when we heard their gobbles in the distance.

We loved how this large hen saw us across a valley and instantly laid low so we could hardly see her!

Even from a distance a displaying tom looks fancy!

Our very best hike was an 8 mile lollipop loop that took us to the furthest reaches of the park (South and North Talon trails).
Amazing views, interesting layers of rock, and turkeys way up at 6,500 feet!

Granite outcroppings on the flank of cloud topped Cheyenne Mountain.
NORAD is somewhere in the bowels of that mountain!

Mount St Helens Up Close and Personal

I love mountains. They are striking and stately, majestic even, towering over us all. You can't help but admire them, their rugged beauty, ancient history, one of nature's most impressive feats. But they can be volatile too. Mount St Helens (MSH) has enticed me for years, she's gorgeous and dangerous all at once. Of course she had to go on our Summer in Washington itinerary!

The Johnston Ridge Observatory is the visitor center at the end of Spirit Lake Highway (hwy 504), the Western entrance to Mount St Helens National Volcanic Monument. From the Observatory, we hiked to Harry's Ridge, an 8 mile RT journey through the blast zone of the May 1980 eruption. Harry was a long time resident of Spirit Lake in the shadow of Mount St Helens, he couldn't bear to leave when she erupted and remains there with his beloved mountain in spirit today.

This was an amazing trail and we hit it at the perfect time of year...flowers were exploding all over the hillsides, it was sunny and 75 degrees, very few people on the trail...I think we'll have to call this a Favorite!

About halfway up the 50+ mile road to the Mountain we had a great view of the Toutle River flood plain.
This river was the primary flow zone for landslide and eruption debris after the 1980 eruption.
The river runs gray with sediment which continues to flow in abundance from the Mountain
and will likely do so for many years.

Just a quarter mile into the trail we are entranced by the flowers and the views.

Did I mention the flowers?

To the North were mountains denuded of trees in the 1980 blast, about 10 miles from MSH.

The trail hugs Johnston Ridge and draws us nearer to the heart of the blast zone.
Hans is a small figure on the trail.

This is a look back at Johnston Ridge, the visitor center is practically invisible atop the ridge.
This ridge took the brunt of the blast and channeled the landslide debris to the West,
down the Toutle River flood plain.

We are right there, face to face, with this incredible, living mountain.
It's impossible not to be bowled over by the obvious force and destructive nature of the
landslide and eruption 34 years earlier.

The trail continued around Johnston Ridge and into a small valley full of hummocks,
large deposits of rocks and debris left behind as the initial landslide moved through.

Lupine are very hardy and were the first flowers to come back to the devastated landscape just a year after the blast.

Rising out of the valley we were treated to incredible views of Spirit Lake and Mt Adams, 45 miles away.
Thousands of tree trunks from the 1980 blast float upon Spirit Lake.

Before us, the end of our trail enticed us toward a full frontal view of Mount St Helens.

We shared Harry's Ridge with a seismic monitoring station, and no one else!

Here's a little closer look.
It's amazing to think she went from 9,667 feet and cone shaped to 8,365 feet in just 10 minutes on May 18, 1980.
A 5.1 magnitude earthquake triggered the largest recorded debris landslide ever. The resulting loss of external "skin" allowed internal pressure to blast forth from the North side of the mountain in a pyroclastic flow that flattened everything for 230 square miles.

The bulge in the center of the crater is evolving.
Activity over the last 34 years has replaced 7% of the lost mountain.

Steam issues from a gaping crater.

Steam billows from the top edges periodically.

Ash was deposited up to 150 feet deep in the blast zone. the Toutle River carves a new canyon through the ash.

Look at those grins!

Lassen Volcanic National Park, Three Ways

We're spending a week just outside the cute little town of Chester, CA and almost on the shores of Lake Almanor at Big Springs Resort. Resort isn't a very accurate description, but this small, rustic full hookup RV park is extremely peaceful and about one block from the lake. The lake is supposed to get to around 75 degrees in the summer...it isn't that warm yet, but with the temps heading into the low 90's in the next few days we may just have to test the water!

Chester, CA is about 30 miles from the Southwest entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Mt Lassen, at 10,457 ft, is the Southern most mountain in the Cascade Range and is a snow capped beacon looming over the surrounding area that last erupted in 1915. We chanced upon this area simply because it was a good distance from Reno, and we are so happy we ended up here! The lake is beautiful, the forests are lush and inviting and the trails are many!

So, in our three full days here we have experienced Lassen in three different ways:

#1. Lassen From Afar

The Lake Almanor Recreation Trail is a paved trail along 10 miles of the West edge of the lake, and I believe you can add on another mile to the dam using old highway 89. Much of the trail is in cool, refreshing, beautiful forest...perfect for a ride even when it's over 80 in the sun. Here and there are lake access points, there's a gentle incline and descent of a couple of miles in the middle of the trail, and at the South end of the lake you get wonderful views of Mt Lassen. We parked at the Northernmost trail head and rode 9 miles South and then back.

It's a 52 mile drive (or road bike ride) around Lake Almanor. All types of boating are allowed. The fishing is supposed to be good as well as birding. We saw pileated woodpeckers and bald eagles during our bike ride.

Mt Lassen dominates the horizon in these parts.

#2. Lassen at its Heart

Another day we drove the 30 miles to the Southwest entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We'd planned to hike the Bumpass Hell and the Terrace/Shadow/Cliff Lakes trails but learned at the visitor center they were still closed due to snow. We were surprised since we knew it had been a low-snow winter and snow was melting fast in the early season heat. After a normal winter trails often don't open until July!

We ended up hiking three miles out from the Summit Lake trail head (campground and day use area still closed for the season even though there was no snow). Then stopped at the Kings Creek trail head and took the pretty one mile trail to the falls. Then stopped to oooh and ahh over the stinking, bubbling, boiling Sulphur Works. Sulphur Works is said to be the heart of the park, it is the center of a ring of mountains that were once one giant volcanic mountain, Mt. Tehama. Here's a You Tube video Hans shot at Sulphur Works.

All in all a fun day in the park...and we only drove halfway through the park! We'll save the Northwest portion for another visit down the road...

Fantastic views from the road through Lassen.
These peaks are part of edge of the original giant volcano, Mt Tehama.

Pretty colors in Echo Lake.

Kings Creek cuts through a still brown meadow, snow blankets the North facing hillside.

This is only a small portion of Kings Creek Falls!
It was stunning!

Lake Helen still covered in a thin layer of ice. The road cuts through the left side of the photo...
it could still have 10 - 15 feet of snow in a normal year!

The more active volcanic parts of the park leave colorful residues on the mountainsides.

Boiling sulphur mud pools right off the road at the Sulphur Works turnout.

#3, Lassen from the Fringes

Today we accessed Lassen Volcanic National Park from the town of Chester. Just 17 miles North of town (14 miles are paved, 3 are good dirt road) is the Drakesbad Guest Ranch. Drakesbad opened in 1900 as a remote, healthful retreat, utilizing the hot mineral waters naturally flowing through the property. Today it is owned by the National Park Service and continues to provide a unique lodging experience in an incredibly beautiful setting.

Drakesbad is located next to several fascinating trails (plus the Pacific Crest Trail) and we hiked two of them: Devils Kitchen and Boiling Springs Lake. We enjoyed these hikes so much I have to tag them as Favorites!

Drakesbad Guest Ranch is nestled in a beautiful meadow with a forested lava mountain behind it.
The hot spring in the foreground flows into a swimming pool at the bottom of the hill.

Devils Kitchen is AMAZING! There's about a third of a mile trail that loops you THROUGH the bubbling, steaming, burping, stinking mess that is the earth releasing its super heated gases. It's a fascinating experience and pictures just cannot do it justice...you've got to visit this place!

A cold water creek flows through Devil's Kitchen right along side steaming vents and bubbling hot water vents.
See the steam rising down stream?

The sounds coming out of the vents were scary!

Bubbling furiously!

Signs all over the place warned us that it is illegal to go beyond the signs!

Once we could finally tear ourselves away from the wonders of the Kitchen, we took a different trail back towards Drakesbad and the Boiling Springs Lake.

A strategically fallen tree enabled a stream crossing.

All along this portion of the trail we saw recently torn apart logs, sure sign that bears frequent this area.
Sure enough, once we reached the next trail junction a sign confirmed that fact!

Boiling Springs Lake was a cauldron of milky whitish, blueish water surrounded by colorful soil.
Hans is looking at a deer lying in front of a tree near the lake.

We decided he was enjoying the warmth of the dirt!
In places the soil was quite hot to the touch.

The far end of the lake seemed to be the main source of the earths emissions.

Colorful, burbling, burping, steaming potholes making all sorts of crazy sounds at this end of the lake.

Here's a You Tube video Hans made that includes the wild sounds coming out of the potholes.

Boiling Springs Lake with Mt Lassen in the distance.

We're halfway through our week at Lake Almanor and we've just scratched the surface of this incredibly beautiful, scientifically amazing place! Oh, and one of the best things, it's very uncrowded. Today we only saw one other small group on the trail!