Round Mountain Trail (to the top of Sheep Mountain) 8,450
19 July, 2003 Sue Wolber (solo)
Trailhead is at 5,743 - take Highway 34 west of Loveland, 4 miles past the Dam store (5 miles east of Drake). Trailhead is on the south side of the road, just past (west of ) and across from the Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park. Plenty of parking.
Length one-way: 4.5 miles
Map of Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park showing the trailhead
There are 2 trails at the trailhead: Nature trail (wide road), and Summit trail.(rocky single-track), though they start out together as a wide road out the west side of the parking lot. Next to the restrooms there is what ought to be a huge nice trailhead sign with maps and such, but there's nothing on it :-(
Take the road, at 0.1 miles you can put in a quarter and get a guide for the nature trail. At 0.2 miles the trails split, and in another 0.1 the summit trail turns to single-track. It switch-backs east and west with a couple of downhill's that had me wondering if I was on the correct trail. The trail is blatantly obvious all the way to the top though, no way to get lost here. There is quite a bit of noise from Hwy 34 :-( for the first 1.5 - 2 miles.
It was a very late start for me (about noon at the trailhead) but I figured it was way below tree-line and a fairly safe popular trail to hike alone.... At 0:26 the "Mile 1" marker sign came into view and I took a break to add sunscreen and a hat. Trail continues to switchback east-west uphill and it seemed longer to the "Mile 2" sign that took me until 1:13. I almost quit here - my dismal pace combined with thunder off to the south, and it was already past 1pm... but sky was clear to the west and the clouds all looked far enough south for lightening to not be an issue, and there was just enough thin clouds overhead to cool everything off, so I pressed on, and I'm glad I did! Turns out the first 2 miles are about 2/3 of the elevation gain! About 2.5 there is a neat hollowed-out rock in the center of the trail, and the trail levels out, turns south, and there is quite a bit of downhill here. About 2.75 there is an interesting "notch" in the trail with a steep step up and down, I'd imagine this would be tough for horses. It's downhill from there to the "Mile 3" sign at 1:43. I'm not sure there was any net elevation gain from mile marker 2 to 3....
Around "Mile 3" is the only water I saw and it was an almost-stagnant trickle - bring water for your dogs! The trail goes south-west and downhill from mile 3 for a bit, then levels out in a gorgeous meadow with waist-high grass and gobs of wildflowers. Highway noise is totally gone, this is just beautiful. Trail continues uphill, then another meadow, then uphill, then another meadow... to "Mile 4" marker at 2:17. It seemed more than 0.5 miles from here to the summit at 2:44, it was a bit steeper than the previous 2 miles but not that much. Guess I was getting tired.
An absolutely huge 5-6 foot high cairn marks the end of the trail. It had been gently raining since about mile 3 and I could now hear thunder off to the south and west, so I did a quick sign of the summit register (in the cairn) and beat feet downhill - worried about slipping on wet rocks as the rain continued. The light rain quit after another half-hour tho, and about mile 1.5 there was a guy with a couple dogs (leashed even!) going uphill (I thought I started late!), standing watching a deer down in a meadow... wish I'd brought a camera! After this, highway noise came back, and an uneventful downhill to the car, for a total 4:30 hours for 9 miles round-trip and not quite 3,000 elevation gain. Not great, but could be worse.
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