Mountain Hiking

by Harold Sears

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Stearns Lake is located in the southeastern corner of Boulder County in the Carolyn Holmberg Preserve. The trail almost encircles the lake, meanders through agricultural and wilder grasslands, passes other ponds, and skirts Rock Creek and other smaller watercourses.

Around Stearns Lake, the main trail runs below the long, arcing dam, so the focus is less on the water and more on prairie grasses and maybe hawks high in the cottonwoods. But a social trail does climb to the top of the dam and allows us to walk along, just above the water, enjoying pungent but pleasant smells of wet mud, flocks of waterfowl, and big views of the snowy back range.

About 0.7 mi. from the trailhead, I came to the Mary Miller Trail that turned east past a prairie dog preserve on the left and the riparian corridor of Rock Creek on the right. At mile point 1.6, I passed the Rock Creek Farm complex on hwy. 287 and walked under the highway. The trail turns north, passes under Dillon Rd. and the NW Parkway, and enters the Coal Creek/Rock Creek trail system. The Imel Trail turns NNE and parallels the railroad tracks there.

Meadowlarks perched on fence posts. They quacked, clucked, cheeped, twittered, but also favored me with their wonderfully liquid trills in a variety of patterns. One bird gave a falling trill just like a brook splashing from ledge to ledge to ledge. About 4.2 mi. from the trailhead, we pass under 120th St., and trails continue on to the east.

Another day, I returned to Stearns Lake, walked about 1/4 mi., and turned south on Cradleboard Trail. This trail enters Buffalo Gulch, turns SSE for 1.3 mi., and ends at Brainard Dr. I passed a farm pond with ducks and a hawk high in a cottonwood, screeching in indignation. There was a huge pigeon flock in a fallow field and another major prairie dog colony that had stripped and devastated the land. It looked like a war zone -- no-man's land with shell holes and craters. There were no coils of WWI barbed wire, but many signs were posted -- No Entry! And high-pitched barks, like short versions of the whir of artillery, warned me away.

An intersection at about the 0.8 mile point on this trail heads south to Josh's Pond, a pretty park in the Broomfield trail system. The water was deep blue, and Red-wing Blackbirds were nesting densely. There is a height that gives a good view all around. Ignore the heavy traffic on hwy. 36 and the office buildings of Broomfield to the south. Turn west and there is snow on the Continental Divide. North are fields, streams, and Stearns Lake. East are rolling hills in yellow and brown.

Longs Peak

Meadowlark

Mallard pair

Pigeons

From Boulder, drive east on South Boulder Rd. to 96th St., hwy 42 (about 5.6 mi. from Foothills Parkway). Drive south 2.0 mi. on 96th (42 will turn to the east; stay on 96th), turn east and drive 1.0 mi. on Dillon Rd., and then south 0.7 mi. on 104th St. The Stearns Lake trailhead is on the left.

There is a trail map posted at the trailhead, or click on the above thumbnail. An extensive trail map for all of Boulder County is available from the Boulder Area Trails Coalition (link on home page).

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Cautionary Note -- If any of the hikes described on this site sound like something you would like to do yourself, please use good judgment and prepare yourself according to your skills, your interests, and the season. What was fun for me under one set of circumstances might not be fun or even safe for another under other circumstances. Do not consider these descriptions to be unqualified recommendations.