Visit the North Sand Hills and assorted trails.
|
Join in with a Front Range 4x4 trip to the North Sand Hills for a
multi-day trip. Decent weather for the weekend (possible afternoon
showers) though weather leading up has been drizzly and cloudy. There is an over-mountain trail that starts at the Hohnholz Lakes area and ends at the North Sand Hills. As we (Bryan and his son Colin) left Fort Collins early enough we discussed the option to try the trail. We did. It was snowed in and we had to turn back. As photos show, the first two or three miles of graded, dirt road was a mud-slog. As my tires extend outside of my mud flaps - I became covered in mud. Our in and out on the Hohnholz Lakes trail set is back such that we ended up at the campground after dark. Setup went smoothly. Saturday, Day 2, was a decent weather day. Our first action was to drive 10 miles south to Walden to fill the fuel tanks. Task done the group ventured out to the sand trails and fields (north field and south field). After a bit in the fields we traveled a "typical" trail - Sand Hills Road trail to see how far we could get. This would be the "other end" of the Hohnholz Lakes trail that was tried the day before. This trail was blocked by a large tree. I tried to pull it off of the trail but the root system was still connected enough. With bugs, drizzle, and darkness approaching we didn't bother chain-sawing it off. After a short rain, we headed out to explore the edges of the two sand fields - a network of smaller trails, some too small for jeeps and are more in tune for quads. Sunday, Day 3 we left the Sand Hills and traveled south to head home via CO Hwy 14. Filling the gas tanks at Walden we decided upon a trail to visit on the way back - Michigan River Trail. It was a scenic in-n-out trail with a fair bit of camping in the area. |
| Day 1 Fort Collins to North Sand Hills via a failed (snowed in) Hohnholz Lakes trail Day 2 North Sand Hills and the North Sand Hills trail (with a tree blockage) Day 3 Sand Hills to Fort Collins with a stop at a North Park vista wayside and the Michigan trail |