{"id":2982,"date":"2015-11-27T08:10:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-27T15:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=2982"},"modified":"2022-07-17T16:02:23","modified_gmt":"2022-07-17T22:02:23","slug":"belcher-hill-upper-white-ranch-park-colorado-11-8-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/?p=2982","title":{"rendered":"Belcher Hill & Upper White Ranch Park, Colorado (11-8-15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday afternoon, 11-8-15, Joe and Dusty were free to join Lupe and SPHP for a little adventure in the mountains W of Arvada, Colorado.\u00a0 Joe suggested hiking some of the trails in upper White Ranch Park<\/a><\/span><\/strong>, which wasn’t too far away.\u00a0 Unlike the trails in the lower part of the park, the trails in upper White Ranch Park don’t lose or gain an awful lot of elevation.\u00a0 It\u00a0would be a pleasant, relaxing afternoon outing.<\/p>\n

Naturally, Lupe and cousin Dusty were both eager to go.\u00a0 Everyone piled into the G6.\u00a0 Even though the Broncos were playing, it was such a nice afternoon for November that lots of people were already at the park when Lupe and Dusty arrived.\u00a0 The parking lot closest to the old ranch headquarters was completely full.\u00a0 Luckily, Joe\u00a0did find\u00a0an empty\u00a0spot for the G6 in the parking lot near the Belcher Hill trail.<\/p>\n

The first, and longest, trail that Lupe, Dusty, Joe and SPHP took was a clockwise circuit of the entire Rawhide trail, which makes a loop.\u00a0 At the far N end of the trail is a bench with a little roof\u00a0over it.\u00a0 There was a view\u00a0toward a high snow-capped peak far to the N from the bench.<\/p>\n

\"Upper<\/a>
Upper White Ranch Park from the Rawhide trail. Photo looks SE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A high, snow-capped peak is seen far away barely poking up over the ridge line.\u00a0 This photo was taken\u00a0from\u00a0in front of\u00a0the bench at the N end of the Rawhide trail in upper White Ranch Park.\u00a0 The bench is about 2.5 miles from the parking lots.\u00a0 Photo looks N.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Joe and SPHP sat on the bench\u00a0contemplating the view and\u00a0munching apples, while water from a bit of melting snow on the roof dripped in front of them.\u00a0 Lupe and Dusty\u00a0shared some Taste of the Wild, which Dusty\u00a0devoured with special relish\u00a0since she doesn’t ordinarily get it.\u00a0 Dusty polished off the apple cores, too, when they became available.\u00a0 As far as Lupe was concerned, Dusty could have the\u00a0apple cores.<\/p>\n

The E section of the Rawhide trail stayed more in the forest than the W part of the trail had.\u00a0 Along the NE section of the trail, there were\u00a0occasional views across the deep Ralston Creek valley toward the high rocky ridge to the E.\u00a0 Lupe passed by another bench commemorating a visit by Princess Anne.\u00a0 Trees had grown up to mostly obscure the view from there.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking ENE across the deep Ralston Creek valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The rocky ridge\u00a0beyond Ralston Creek from the E portion of the Rawhide Trail in upper White Ranch Park. Photo looks ENE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A little way S of the Princess Anne bench was a nice view to the SE toward North Table Mountain<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0(6,566 ft.)<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>
North Table Mountain from the Rawhide trail in upper White Ranch Park, Colorado. Photo looks SE.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Lupe, Joe & Dusty on the Rawhide trail. Photo looks WNW.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Except near the N end, the Rawhide trail was pretty busy.\u00a0 There were hikers, runners, dogs, and especially mountain bikers.\u00a0 By the time Lupe was getting close to the parking lots again, though, the crowds were beginning to thin out.<\/p>\n

\"Upper<\/a>
Upper White Ranch Park from the Rawhide trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe near the Rawhide Trail not far from the parking lots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Lupe reached the parking lot again, the\u00a0sun was starting to get low in the W.\u00a0 Since it would still be up for at least another hour, SPHP suggested taking the trail to Belcher Hill<\/a> (7,949 ft.)<\/span><\/span><\/strong>.\u00a0 Joe, Dusty and Lupe were all up for it.\u00a0 From the parking lot near the old ranch headquarters, Lupe took the Sawmill trail to the Belcher Hill trail.\u00a0 There were views of the ranch headquarters and North Table Mountain along the way.<\/p>\n

\"Looking<\/a>
Looking N at the White Ranch headquarters from the Sawmill trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"North<\/a>
North Table Mountain from the Sawmill trail. Downtown Denver, CO is seen on the L.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the Sawmill trail, the Belcher Hill trail headed WNW up a forested ridge.\u00a0 The trail eventually leveled out near the high point on the ridge.\u00a0 Lupe climbed up on the highest rocks on the ridge to claim another peakbagging success.<\/p>\n

These highest rocks were in the forest, so there wasn’t much of a view from the top.\u00a0 However, back closer to the trail, there were some lower rocks along more open ground.\u00a0 From these lower rocks were pretty views from the S around to the W.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe on the highest rocks on the Belcher Hill ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking WNW from rocks near the Belcher Hill trail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Looking<\/a>
Looking SSW from Belcher Hill, Colorado.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the high point on the ridge, it was a short pleasant stroll through the forest to the junction with the Mustang trail.<\/p>\n

\"Lupe<\/a>
Lupe and Dusty at the trail junction.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From the junction with the Mustang trail, the Belcher Hill trail headed N down the ridge to the parking lot.\u00a0 There was just enough packed snow on the trail on the N side of the ridge to make things a bit slippery.\u00a0 It didn’t take long to reach the parking lot, but the sun was down behind the mountains\u00a0by the time Lupe and Dusty got there.<\/p>\n

Back\u00a0at Dusty’s house\u00a0in Arvada, it\u00a0turned out that Lupe, Dusty, Joe & SPHP\u00a0had a better afternoon at upper White Ranch Park than the Denver Broncos had in Indianapolis.\u00a0 The Colts defeated the previously unbeaten Broncos 27-24.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Next Adventure<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Prior Adventure<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Want more Lupe adventures?\u00a0\u00a0Choose\u00a0from\u00a0Lupe’s 2015 Arvada, CO Adventure Index<\/span><\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0Dingo Vacations Adventure Index<\/a><\/strong><\/span> or Master Adventure Index<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Or subscribe free\u00a0to\u00a0new Lupe adventures<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday afternoon, 11-8-15, Joe and Dusty were free to join Lupe and SPHP for a little adventure in the mountains W of Arvada, Colorado.\u00a0 Joe suggested hiking some of the trails in upper White Ranch Park, which wasn’t too far away.\u00a0 Unlike the trails in the lower part of the park, the trails in … Continue reading Belcher Hill & Upper White Ranch Park, Colorado (11-8-15)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[438],"tags":[105,447,450,106,296,26,146,446,451,104,448,449,445],"class_list":["post-2982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2015-arvada-colorado","tag-american-dingo","tag-belcher-hill","tag-belcher-hill-trail","tag-carolina-dog","tag-colorado","tag-dingo-vacations","tag-dusty","tag-jefferson-county","tag-joe","tag-lupe","tag-rawhide-trail","tag-sawmill-trail","tag-white-ranch-park"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adventuresoflupe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/P1070536.jpg?fit=1651%2C1238&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2982"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41197,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2982\/revisions\/41197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adventuresoflupe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}