Part I started here.

After lunch in Red Feather Lakes, we started towards home. My agenda for the big day also included hiking, so we looked for possible trails while heading back through Poudre Canyon. I told my husband thatthe hiking on the right side of the road looked nicer since there were tons of trees. Imust have beentalking to a wall,because he pulled off at a trail on the left – Hewlett Gulch Trailhead. To me it just looked like a bunch of foot hills and not much else. Yes, I did a little wining like, “Not like this is my day or anything.”

WOA! I was wrong, and after hiking Idid apologize.

Such a beautiful location! Thankfully it was overcast, because much of it is out in the open, and it was a day inlate August. My brother and I had left my husband in the parking area so that he could take a nap.We said that we’d be back within an hour, so we only got to hike a little longer than that. Ithad started to drizzle anyway,and we didn’t want to get stuck out in bad weather.

Now, instead of my foot falling in the water at one point while crossing the stream, I could have crossed here:

We ended up crossingGordon Creek12 times!!! And yes, my foot did fall in about 1/3 of the time. Even though my boots were waterproof, the water ended up being above my boots in a few locations, so I ended up having wet feet.

There are restrooms and there is no fee to park. This is a great place for hiking, dogs, mountain biking, and equestrian. In fact, we saw a large pile indicating a horse had been there recently.

There’s a sign at the entrance warning of ticks (which is a big freak of mine), and more bear activity in the Fall. Mountain Lions are also mentioned, but very seldom seen.