Devils Backbone

Stacie and I hiked an old favorite today, Devils Backbone.  The last time we hiked it was a year ago, and we were terribly out of shape at the time, so we wanted to revisit it to see how much easier it would be now, and to see some of the extra trail we skipped last time.

The trailhead is right off of highway 34, just a few minutes from our house.  It’s one of the closest trails we can go to.  We go to the trailhead at 9am and it was already getting hot.  The only real shade on the trail was right at the beginning, just down the hill in the picnic spot.  After that we were completely in the sun the entire time.

The first part of the trail id very easy, and went by extremely quickly. After a quarter of a mile we took the small left hand spur to the mountain overlook.  There is a sign that identifies all of the high points you can see on the horizon.  We could see Bald Mountain and Flatiron Mountain, which are right where we live, and all the way west to Longs Peak.

After four tenths of a mile we took the left hand fork to go to the keyhole.  This path runs right up along the backbone itself, and had some great view of the rocks.  After a mild climb and a small rocky section we made it up to the keyhole.  In the afternoon this is a nice shady spot to take a break, but in the morning it is still in full sun so we didn’t stay long.

After the keyhole it’s another short hike to the end of the Devils Backbone loop (Wild Loop), and the start of Hunter Loop.  Last year we turned back at this point and completed the lower part of Wild Loop to get back to the trailhead.  This time we went on to Hunter Loop.

After a short, flat section the trail climbed a long, fairly steep hill.  Part way up there was a short section of trail with partial shade from overhanging rocks, so we took a short break for water.  We had to crouch down to get fully into the shade, but Shy-Anne was able to enjoy it and take some water and cool down.

When we reached the fork we chose to take a left and complete the loop going clockwise (I believe that this is the easier way).

The trail looped around the west side of the hill before climbing up to the top.  Shortly before the top of the hill we hit the north fork where Hunter Loop joins Laughing Horse Loop.  By this time we were both getting hot, and Shy-Anne was almost overheating, so we decided to complete Hunter Loop instead of going on.  After some more water we continued up the hill.

From the top of the hill we had a great panorama of most of Devils Backbone as well as the mountains to the west.

From here it was all down hill back to the original fork and then back to where we left Wild Loop.  On the way back down we took another break to pour some water over Shy-Anne to help her cool off.  This hike was far rougher on her than us because of the heat.

We took the east half of Wild Loop on the way back.  This section was not that exciting; there wasn't all that much scenery to look at and there still wasn’t any shade, but it was a little bit shorter and easier than the west half going by the keyhole.  By this point we were really looking forward to cold water and air conditioning, so we quickly hiked the rest of the way back to the trailhead without stopping.  Back at the trailhead, we used the hydrant to cool down Shy-Anne and get ourselves some cold water.  Once that was taken care of we all hopped back in the Hummer with the AC blasting and headed home.

This hike was great fun, not only for the hike itself but also because we could really see how far we’ve come in the last year of conditioning.  This is certainly not the last time we will visit Devils Backbone!

View all of the pictures: Photo Gallery