Castlewood Canyon State Park — Attraction in Castle Rock

This is a copy is my review for the Homestead Trailhead and the Castlewood Canyon Ruins Loop. To get there, you need to enter the park through the west entrance.

The Homestead Trail will take you through the Lucas Homestead Site. There are a few interesting things to see along here in addition to the home. About .4 miles in the trail will split into the Creek Bottom Trail to the right and the Rim Rock trail to the left. If you only wanted to see the homestead, this is where you want to turn around.

If you want to see Cherry Creek Falls and the Castlewood Canyon Dam Ruins, this is where you start the Castlewood Canyon Ruins Loop. It's a great, moderate hike. Be prepared for some parts where there are lots of rocky steps, but the majority of it is easy going. The Colorado Trail website says it's just under 5 miles, but I think they may measure that "as the crow flies" and that it's longer with all the ascents/descents. We clocked it at just over 6 miles.

The loop! You have a choice to make at the fork... Do you want to start your hike with a steep climb (rock and man-made steps, not literal climbing) up a ridge or do the moderate thing along side a river? Take the Rimrock Trail if you want to start out on the canyon ridge, Creek Bottom Trail to stay in the canyon bottom.

We decided to stay to the right and followed the Creek Bottom Trail. It's a little hilly and rocky in places and it's beautiful as you wind your way through the trees and boulders. Maybe about a mile and a half down the trail, you will come to Cherry Creek Falls. I read something before going that said it's 20 feet. It didn't really look 20 feet, but it's very pretty and I'm terrible at judging stuff like that. There are pictures of it attached to this so you can decide for yourself if you care. Which you shouldn't... because it's about being out in nature and not about judging the adequacy of waterfalls. I'm sure they get enough of that from the other waterfalls.

You'll want to continue south on the trail now until you get to the Dam Trail. It'll be on your right. This will take you up some steep steps to the top of the Castlewood Canyon Dam Ruins. The view to the south from up here is incredible. So much green! Be sure to read the plaque about the dam. It has an interesting story.

Now it's time to check out the other side of the dam and start the ridge portion of the hike. Follow the Dam Trail until it forks. Stay to the left. This is the Rimrock Trail that I mentioned earlier. Get ready for some serious leg exercise... So. Many. Steps... Steep steps... But once you get to the top, you are rewarded with a really cool view of the dam followed by a completely flat 2 mile stroll along the canyon's edge.

Unfortunately, the park rangers lock the gates at dark and you need to be gone before then. Even more unfortunate is that your car is parked in a lot in the bottom of the canyon and you're currently at the top of it. Time for more stairs.

The cool thing about the north part of this trail is that it's not as steep of a climb/descent as the south end. And it's a lot prettier, being surrounded by trees instead of rocks. It can still get difficult in spots though, so watch your footing.

After the trail reaches the bottom of the canyon, it meanders to the west for maybe half a mile before terminating at the intersection of the Creek Bottom Trail, which goes left, and Homestead Trail, which goes right. Unless you want to do the loop again, go to the right. This is the stretch of trail that you started on and it'll take you back to the parking lot.

While you're out there, keep an eye out for deer and other wildlife. We didn't see any, but I would think that the ridge top would be prime real estate for rattle snakes in the summer, so it's always good to be aware of your surroundings. There are also wildflowers and some cacti along the...

Fun hikes for the whole family. I went to the west entrance which is not the main entrance. There was an automated pay station that only took cards, the cost was $8.00 for a day pass. The pass expired the next day at noon. My family are not avid hikers but we will take the occasional family walk through our neighborhood. Our neighborhood walks top out at two miles. And my family was able to do a two mile loop here with a few stops to rest. A lot of the items of interest are near the beginning of the various trails so it would be possible to take a short walk down a few of the trails to see interesting things and then come back. For example the homestead ruins were visible from the parking area. The waterfall spur and cave spurs are less the 0.3 miles from their respective parking areas.

Things to note:

The west entrance and the east entrance are not connected by a road.

The east entrance is the main entrance and is where Google will send you when you search by the name. The west entrance is labeled on Google maps and can be selected if you zoom in on that side of the park.

The west entrance trailhead parking area does not have clear signage of the various trails that start there. But there are separate clearly marked parking areas for the homestead, waterfall, and cave trails.

The website says the hours the park opens is 8:00 a.m. but signage at the park say the park is open sunrise to sunset.

On Sunday, when I went, there was a noticable increase in people on the trail by 10:00 a.m. We were there...

I found the park to be uninteresting.

From the East TH I hiked to the bridge overlook and then along the Canyon View Trail, which is paved, but I didn't get excited about either one.

Then I visited the West TH, which doesn't have any signs directing you there from the highway. I parked to hike to the falls and decided to continue further to visit the dam. Between the falls and the dam there were a couple of teenagers in a cave with sleeping bags doing drugs which resulted in an unpleasant experience when I had to hike past them twice. There was no signage at the dam explaining why it was built. The falls were not particularly impressive. I also hiked on the cave trail, but never saw an obvious cave. I ended my day on the Homestead Trail and I saw more deer than people which I enjoyed, but you have to bring up the trail brochure on your phone & after the last part of the homestead I kept walking a ways because I didn't realize that trail was done and I was now on...