Stag Gulch Trail

Another installment of Monday Night Hikin' (after a month-long hiatus due to a plethora of rainy evenings - not that we're complaining about the rain, you know, but it was nice to get out and enjoy another evening hike together).  This week we chose Stag Gulch, which we knew next to nothing about going in.  No information on the Forest Service website, in my hiking book, or even at the trailhead - we only knew it existed because there is a sign with the name and trail number (1866) designating it as such.  Actually, there were three or four signs along the trail, so it's kind of weird to me that there's no info about it anywhere.  Another oddity is that it was obviously well used, at least by horses, as we were constantly dodging their droppings the whole way up.  But, while it made for an adventure getting "there" since we didn't even know where "there" was, or how long to expect it to take us, we had a mighty enjoyable time.

The stats:

Date hiked: 29 July 2012

Start time: ~5:45 pm

Rest/group shot time: ~10 minutes

Back time: before 8:00 pm

Total round trip time: pretty close to our typical 2 hr 15 min

Total mileage: ~5

High point: above 9300 feet (I didn't look at my GPS at the top)

And the photos:

We hiked along the muddy trail (see pics below), not knowing what we would find, when we finally picked an arbitrary ".5 miles further than the point we were at then" to be our turn-around spot, so we'd be sure to have enough daylight to get back.  Once we reached that .5 miles-further mark, we could see an opening ahead of us, and decided to make that our destination, just a little bit further ahead.  It turns out that clearing was a huge grassy field with spectacular views in every direction.  And, as an added bonus, breathtaking clouds were billowing above us.  It was SO cool!

Can you see the itty bitty rainbow?

These ones looked a little threatening, so we didn't spend too much
time up on top, for fear that we'd get soaked on the way back down.

As we left the clearing we spotted four deer - three bucks and a doe - out for their evening meal.  I wasn't quick enough to get any photos, but they were beautiful.  I don't know that I've ever seen deer on a hike - especially that close.

Coming back down the trail we had excellent views of Cordillera
and Edwards and beyond.

See?  Mud-dy!