Colorado - Hike and Bike (Oct/Nov 2025)

[ttora4runner]

The past two months I've been knocking off a few local trails around the Front Range of Colorado that I've know about for awhile but hadn't taken the chance to do so. So with the recent move back to the Pueblo area I decided to finally check out these areas.

Florence Mountain Park - Newlin Creek, hike up to the remain of an old lumber mill.














The trail after the sawmill gets a little less use so wayfinding gets a little more difficult but it eventually ends at ridge line with a view of Pikes Peak and the mountain range to the SW.




At the beginning of November I finally made the hike up to Marion Mine down by Rye, Colorado and Lake Isabel. Trail is pretty easy and I was the only one out there this morning.






The split in the trail to the mine.




Old miners cabin that someone has fixed up.


The remains of Marion Mine








End of the trail at least as far as I wanted to take it without doing some bushwhacking to explore further.

 

[ttora4runner]

The following weekend I headed back out a little further south to the Del Norte, Colorado area for a mountain bike ride up Middle Frisco trail to the San Francisco Lakes area. There are two lakes that make up the name but I wasn't having a very good morning riding and didn't feel that great so I kept it to the one lake. I'm planning to revisit the area again next year and hopefully I'll feel better that time. Still a good morning to get out regardless.

The arrow in the photo shows roughly where the lakes are at about 6 miles away and 2k in elevation difference.










Really the only photo that turned out at the lake.


Despite a couple of hunters I had the trial mainly to myself again, can't complain. On to the next adventure here in a few weeks.

 

[DieselRanger]

Cool sections of Colorado that don't get the attention of those with bigger scenery. I'm in Colorado Springs and don't get down there very much myself, but with the lack of snow this year I still have the AT's on the Disco, and some time off this week...maybe I'll throw the bike on the rack and go exploring myself. Thanks for the inspiration!