Hall Ranch 2017 r1

Hall Ranch, near Lyons, is a good place to go in winter and early spring.  The trail conditions can vary from generally good at the beginning to snow covered near the top, but almost never too bad.  There are many different things to see along the way at Hall Ranch, including the old Nelson Ranch Homestead.  Today I chose to extend the trip and go to the junction of Sleepy Lion Trail near Ralph Price Dam.  Sleepy Lion is part of the Longmont City open space system.  I met some folks who indicated there was a trail around the north side of the lake that met up with 'a road'.  I believe later this year I will explore to see if I can connect to the Coulson Gulch Trail system.  Here are some pictures and metrics

An eroded hole in the rock - OK not so exciting, but I find erosion interesting

There are almost always Mule deer around the trail

I met someone on the trail who indicated that on a previous trip they had encountered a fairly new deer 'kill'.  Our guess was a mountain lion, but who knows.

Sometimes animal tracks are easy to see in the snow, sometimes not

Typical trail conditions early

A view from the top of the trail

These pinecones seemed huge

Ralph Price reservoir from the junction with Sleepy Lion Trail

More Deer

Trail conditions later in the day

Overall Track Statistics for Lyons - Hall Ranch 2017 r1,   1821 data points

 Length 13.460 miles  :  Garmin Length 13.890 miles

 Start Elevation - 5484.09 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 6743.01 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 5317.59 feet

 Date of Hike - Jan 23, 2017

 Start Time - 08:52 AM

 End Time - 02:36 PM

 Total Duration -     5:43 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 2352.79 feet

 Total Descent - 2519.29 feet

 Net Ascent - -166.50 feet

 Maximum Grade - 11.77%

 Average Speed -  2.35 mph :  Garmin Average Speed  2.41 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 504.59 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  2.98 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) -  9.46%