St. Mary's Falls

St. Mary's Falls is located off Gold Camp Road in Colorado Springs.  It is to have reported 33 waterfalls leading up to St. Mary's Fall.  The trail is 5.6 miles round trip.  The first half of the trail is pretty easy, the second half of the trail is where you gain some altitude and hit rougher terrain.

To get to the trail head there are two different tunnels that you pass thru.  As you can see this one is only about 100 meters. No head lamp needed here.

Second tunnel, this one is about 1/4 mile. Once you get past the bend, you can see the "light at the end" I don't think you really need a head lamp, but it is helpful.  Inside the walls are jagged, and the way the light bounces off the walls is rather cool.

Before you reach the tail head there is an old closed up rail tunnel. The trail head is just to the right or the rail tunnel. The trail will lead you up and around this around this.

 The trail follows along side a stream. The trail is not heavily traveled so one can get lost in the sound of waterfalls as you hike to St. Mary's. Here is one of the many waterfall that you will see along the trail side.

Almost there! Notice that Orion and I are matching, we are both in orange! This is the last .2 miles of the hike, there are a few tight steep switch backs.  This was the steepest part of the whole trail.  There are a few rock steps before you reach the fall.

There she is! St. Mary's Fall! This fall is 181 vertical feet up! Honestly this picture does not do her justice. 

Just right of the fall is a memorial for a fallen climber.  The plaque reads:

In Memory of Eamon Murphy 1948 - 2008
Who fell to his death here on May 24, after solo climbing Stove Mountain above these fall, He was a darling man, loved by all who knew him.

The boots are filled with rocks so that they do not blow away. As I experienced it can get rather windy.

The view of Colorado Springs, is breath taking, you can see the Broadmoor from here.  The elevation at this point is 9,300ft. At this time the sun just happened to be shining down on it.  After a little snack it was time to head back down. 

 

This hike overall was pretty good.  It is labeled as a family friendly hike, but when you gain almost 2,000 feet in about 3 miles, the last 1.6 miles being the steeper of the hike. I don't think is a great from smaller children.  If you can climb Palmer Loop, Section 16, then this should be fairly easy for you. 

 

 

Lat-long GPS coordinates: N 38.77079 and W -104.91893

 

 

~Happy Trails!

 

 

”I run in the snow, rain, wind and heat. I run until I cannot run anymore then I run some more. I run thru the blur of tears, the aches and pains and then I keep going. I have more running clothes than some running stores, I know Fartklet does not mean like it sounds. I go to bed at 9pm; I get up early just to do it all over again. Why do I do this? Because I am a runner and that's who I am"

Black and Blue

If you told me I could not run for a set peroid of time I really wouldn't know what to do with myself.  I love to run, if I can not run I feel lost, like I am missing something.  Running makes me a better person, it helps me think thru tough decisions, it allows me to release all my tensions, sometimes I run until I am completely empty and all I feel is the earth beneath my feet and the wind wrapping their arms around me.

On Sunday I almost took a good digger coming down Barr Trail.  I was able to catch myself and keep going, but the stress that I put on my left knee was more then it could handle.  I am usually pretty cautious when it comes to my knees.  I have already had knee surgery and I really don't want to repeat it. 

I woke up this morning and had noticed that my LT knee was a shade darker then it was the day before.  Feeling a little nervous about the potential of hurting my knee again I thought it would be a good idea to swing into the athletic trainers office and have him take a look at it.  One of the perks of working in  a High School, besides having access to an ice bath whenever I need it.


After a bit of poking, pulling and pushing he told me that I have a bruised patella tendon.  Everything is well intact which I was happy to hear and I thought that was the case.  He told me that I can keep my mileage the where it but I just need to keep an eye on it.  If I start to feel pain then I need to back off on my run.  So basically just baby the thing I should be back to normal in two to three weeks.

I took a picture of my knee this morning and you can see the shade of purple that it has become.

Wow! I really need to get some sun my legs! I have a run tonight at Red Rock Open Spaces which I am looking forward to.  So, I hope my knee can keep up.  Saturday is my first race of the Summer Series, fingers crossed that I am back to my normal self sooner than later!

”I run in the snow, rain, wind and heat. I run until I cannot run anymore then I run some more. I run thru the blur of tears, the aches and pains and then I keep going. I have more running clothes than some running stores, I know Fartklet does not mean like it sounds. I go to bed at 9pm; I get up early just to do it all over again. Why do I do this? Because I am a runner and that's who I am"