Dawson's Butte Open Space, Larkspur, CO

I stumbled across this place on a quest to find some local geocaching - it seems that there are some caches in the area, but the appeal of somewhere close with a 5 mile loop was pretty enticing for a beautiful warm winter day.



This place is just a couple miles south of the Castle Rock area, and a few miles off the frontage road. It's a no brainer loop (we headed North out of the parking lot on the route the map shows) - just follow the signs and it's pretty tough to get lost.

Distance: 5 mi Loop
Kid Friendly: Definitely (more so when there's no ice)
Dog Friendly: We saw dogs, so yeah
Trail Run Friendly: I'd give it a 2/5 for challenge. Not terrible, but a good climb out.
MTB Friendly: 2/5. You can, but it may be a bit short. This would be ideal for someone getting started.

Getting There:

The trail head can be found here:

39° 17.694', -104° 55.261'

http://www.douglas.co.us/dcoutdoors/trails/open-space-trails/dawson-butte-open-space-trail/

We originally took a turn a bit too early and ended up on a private road - I would not recommend doing this.

Trailhead:

There's not much to it, a roundabout with an ovesized porta-john and plenty of trailer parking... ie, watch out for horses and land mines. Also, don't forget to wave, a horse is what will drag your sorry behind out if you ever get into trouble on the trail.

The Trail:

There are a couple of trail spurs which you can see on the trail map at the parking lot, or on the DougCo website, but it's pretty obvious and simple to follow the signs that are available. There's more down than up on the way out, and you start your climb back out at 3 miles... meaning it's steeper coming out than it was going down. This makes for a good run, but if I were doing two loops I'd go counter clockwise first, and then clockwise for the final loop to end on a less steep note.

We were out in mid-January, and most of the trail was clear, but there was enough ice and packed snow to make you pay attention, and I slipped more than a few times. Buyer beware.

Trail Stats:

The trail is exactly five miles long, although my watch poo'd on me a bit, with new technology comes new responsibilities. I had to reset data collection after the run to 1 time per second, I think I cut some corners this run.

Garmin Connect: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/432899672