Date: 9/8/2013
Who: Sammy and myself
Length: about 16 miles
Time: about 8 hours
Weather: warm, cloudy

My goal for this hike was Lake Moraine, a high reservoir several miles west of N. Cheyenne Canyon park on the eastern slope of Pikes Peak. I had read about the lake in a book “Shattered Dreams on Pikes Peak” by Ivan Brunk. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the Bear Creek Toll Road (now trail 667) was the primary route to the summit of Pikes Peak. The Bear Creek route passed by Lake Moriane, and a lake house was located there. I wanted to investigate the historical Pikes Peak route, and see what evidence I could find of the hotel.

This photo of the Seven Lakes Hotel is from the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum site.

Unfortunately, I discovered that Lake Moraine is on Colorado Springs Utilities land and is off-limits to recreational use. The map below shows a red line where I had planned to hike.

Chris and Sammy near trail 667:

On our return trip, we took a slightly different route which included the Forester Trail (trail 701) and trail 720 down to Jones Park. Sammy also injured her paw pads on this long hike and needed some first aid!

As of Sept. 30 2013, the U.S. Forest Service has closed all of these trails for an extended period due to flood damage, and possibly to buy time to evaluate plans to close them permanently?

This hike started at the four-way parking lot in Cheyenne Canyon, up Seven Bridges to Jones Park, up trail 667 to the sign. The red portion of the marked trail was my goal, but was off-limits. The return included trail 701 (Forester Trail) and trail 720 back to Jones Park.

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