One morning I decided to drive out and check this trail system for myself. I’ve heard from a variety of people that the trails were pretty good out there, but I’ve never had the opportunity to get to that part of the world to do this. From Highlands Ranch, it took me about 40 minutes to reach the trailhead. It was still pretty early (9am) so the sun wasn’t quite baking me yet!
I looked at my map and made a decision that I was going to park at the bottom lot, then do the whole park in a counter-clockwise loop (my edited map). My reasoning was that I would end the trip with a long downhill from the top of Evergreen Mtn on the other side of the park. Boy was this a good decision!
This route starts off nice and smooth for about the first mile until you reach the climb up the 3-Sisters Trail. There are a lot of twisty, technical sections as the trail goes pretty much straight up. I admit I had to walk a few sections as it was just too much, too fast, and too steep for me to keep up. The whole climb took maybe 10 minutes or so (not very long). Once on the ridge, there is some nice rocky sections to descend on the back side as you make your way south where you can find your way to the Brothers Lookout for a nice view of the climb you just did.
Back on the trail, and heading west, the trail widens and flattens considerably as you go into the more well-used pathways. There are some nice views as you pedal along, but the trail isn’t very challenging at all. You can loop around and link up with the west (main) parking area. Then continue southward and take a series of right turns to find your way up to Evergreen Mountain. The trail is a continuous up once you leave the parking area, but luckily it is all quite rideable and I could middle-ring most of the ascent all the way to the summit. I opted to go clockwise on the top loop, although it probably makes no difference at all. There is a rocky outcrop at the top where you can get a good view of Mt. Evans.
From here, it is literally all downhill back to the lower parking lot. The trail is quite wide (not being true singletrack, but not quite a fire road either). It makes for some exciting downhill riding, as the trail is generally smooth, has few switchbacks, allowing you to see for long stretches what is coming up. Nonetheless, it is the payoff for all the climbing you’ve been doing for the day, and is greatly appreciated! The only advantage to doing this whole ride in the opposite direction is that you may be able to ride down the 3-Sisters trail, thus abrogating the need to dismount anywhere on the trail system. However, this test is best left for another day! After almost 2 hours of riding, I was ready to go to work for the day…
Some more pictures; [wide open trail in NW corner of park, the gentle climb up to Evergreen Mtn, the trail back down!]
