Round Butte 6090'
I've had my eye on Round Butte for over a calendar year, stemming from a haphazard attempt to tag the summit from the east in which I never even left the car. The mostly inconspicuous hill offers a little more than the average low elevation peak, and justly takes more time than other hour there-and-back points. Plus, climbing Round Butte offers a nice change from the countless forested peaks below 8000 feet in that any approach you take means a walk over native shortgrass prairie, a shrinking ecosystem in Colorado. Round Butte is a nice way to try something new.
Since my doctor didn't recommend against me exercising my injured knees, I thought this would be a nice mellow way to reintroduce myself back into hiking for the first time in 5 weeks. There's hardly any elevation gain until the end(even with that, the total EVG is marginal) and the walking would be easy going across rolling prairie. So I set out after classes and made the long drive to the lower Soapstone Prairie parking area, which I found deserted. Walking along the Pronghorn Loop to the gate to open range, I set off in my own direction hoping to hit an old ranch road I'd investigated through satellite images.
Crossing Wire Draw I found my first group of cattle near a water tank. They looked at me funny before running off, which I noticed was in the direction of the double track road I was looking for. The road topped out over a few rolling hills which allowed me to catch a view of a few groups of pronghorn before they too ran off. Reaching Sand Creek at the flowing well for cattle, nasty clouds started forming to the northeast and the wind picked up...just like the real mountains. Following the wide bed of Sand Creek made for easy(yet meandering) travel towards my destination to the south.
At this point I was just so happy to be outside without anything to worry about, I began to take plenty of pointless excursions and moments to examine rocks and plants and such. I began walking east of the creek bed towards a patch of trees figuring there might be something interesting to see; instead I found the old railroad grade that led directly to the base of Round Butte. After re-crossing Sand Creek, the grade became indistinguishable from the hilly steppe forcing me to cut off towards Round Butte and back to business.
Climbing the butte was quick and simple, and the summit was one of the best I've ever enjoyed. Not only do you get 360 views stretching as far as 200 miles south to Pikes Peak, but you have solitude in the purest form. For the most part, you're staring at miles and miles of nothing with almost absolute assurance that no one else is around. There is a ranch to the east, and theres the road to the west...but for your purposes the world is empty besides you and the butte. It's a very rare feeling for me.
Milling about on the summit battling with the wind I looked down for no specific reason to see a baby snake a foot away. I'm not afraid of snakes(I like snakes, I wish there were more snakes) so I took a closer look. At first I assumed it was a bull snake due to its sandy coloring and its passive, relaxed expression. And it didn't rattle. For a moment we just looked at eachother in a daze, then he decided to rattle. It was kind of pathetic, and anyways I would have never heard his rattle if I hadn't been listening for it. But baby rattlesnakes are the most poisonous and I was 3.5 miles away from the car, so I left him alone after taking a few pictures.
Realizing I only had an hour of daylight left, I began my return home. After two miles of prairie I reached Wire Draw again and followed it in the general direction of the car. Wire Draw is significantly deeper than the bed of Sand Creek, and I enjoyed the wind break it provided. I regained the road eventually and walked back to the deserted parking lot and drove home in darkness.
Since my doctor didn't recommend against me exercising my injured knees, I thought this would be a nice mellow way to reintroduce myself back into hiking for the first time in 5 weeks. There's hardly any elevation gain until the end(even with that, the total EVG is marginal) and the walking would be easy going across rolling prairie. So I set out after classes and made the long drive to the lower Soapstone Prairie parking area, which I found deserted. Walking along the Pronghorn Loop to the gate to open range, I set off in my own direction hoping to hit an old ranch road I'd investigated through satellite images.
Crossing Wire Draw I found my first group of cattle near a water tank. They looked at me funny before running off, which I noticed was in the direction of the double track road I was looking for. The road topped out over a few rolling hills which allowed me to catch a view of a few groups of pronghorn before they too ran off. Reaching Sand Creek at the flowing well for cattle, nasty clouds started forming to the northeast and the wind picked up...just like the real mountains. Following the wide bed of Sand Creek made for easy(yet meandering) travel towards my destination to the south.
At this point I was just so happy to be outside without anything to worry about, I began to take plenty of pointless excursions and moments to examine rocks and plants and such. I began walking east of the creek bed towards a patch of trees figuring there might be something interesting to see; instead I found the old railroad grade that led directly to the base of Round Butte. After re-crossing Sand Creek, the grade became indistinguishable from the hilly steppe forcing me to cut off towards Round Butte and back to business.
Climbing the butte was quick and simple, and the summit was one of the best I've ever enjoyed. Not only do you get 360 views stretching as far as 200 miles south to Pikes Peak, but you have solitude in the purest form. For the most part, you're staring at miles and miles of nothing with almost absolute assurance that no one else is around. There is a ranch to the east, and theres the road to the west...but for your purposes the world is empty besides you and the butte. It's a very rare feeling for me.
Milling about on the summit battling with the wind I looked down for no specific reason to see a baby snake a foot away. I'm not afraid of snakes(I like snakes, I wish there were more snakes) so I took a closer look. At first I assumed it was a bull snake due to its sandy coloring and its passive, relaxed expression. And it didn't rattle. For a moment we just looked at eachother in a daze, then he decided to rattle. It was kind of pathetic, and anyways I would have never heard his rattle if I hadn't been listening for it. But baby rattlesnakes are the most poisonous and I was 3.5 miles away from the car, so I left him alone after taking a few pictures.
Realizing I only had an hour of daylight left, I began my return home. After two miles of prairie I reached Wire Draw again and followed it in the general direction of the car. Wire Draw is significantly deeper than the bed of Sand Creek, and I enjoyed the wind break it provided. I regained the road eventually and walked back to the deserted parking lot and drove home in darkness.
