Dog friendly hiking trails in mountains... (Woodland Park, Palmer Lake: camping, garden, parks)

[allprolab]

We are looking to do some hiking with our dog further in the mountains and could use some suggestions on good dog friendly trails. We are fairly experienced hikers and are not afraid of "hard" trails. (But please don't try to kill us!) And our dog is young and in great shape who hikes 2-3 miles with a backpack several times a week. So a 8-10 mile hike is not a problem.

Something a couple hours or closer would be ideal. Far enough out to really be in the mountains but close enough to not kill the entire day.

Doesn't she look pumped?...

[Fullback32]

Most trails here are dog-friendly. The only ones I know of in the immediate area that are not are trails in Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

A great website that will give you info on trails here including dog information is:

Discover Camping, Hiking, Mountain Biking & Other Outdoor Trails | AllTrails.com.

I use it all the time. My dogs love hiking here and so will yours!

[otowi]

Well, there are only 100's of trails that meet your request. You might try Pancake rocks as a place to start. Horsethief Falls & Pancake Rocks | EveryTrail

[captain_hug99]

I enjoy the trails in Garden of the Gods and Red Rock Canyon Open Space. The only ones that are not dog friendly are state and national parks. National forests are dog friendly.

[beezle1]

There are trails out of Palmer Lake that head up to the 2 reservoirs in the mountains, then branch out to various places from there. Some very interesting hikes from there, including one to an old place crash site.
Palmer Lake Trail

And there is also Spruce Mountain Open Space trail just north of Palmer Lake:
http://www.douglas.co.us/openspace/d...leImg_high.pdf

Neither of these are real strenuous, but I think you could make the Palmer Lake one more of a workout depending on where you go once you reach the upper reservoir. I believe both of these require dogs to be leashed and I have seen them ticketing people for dogs off leash at Spruce Mountain.

[otowi]

Also check out Palmer Park and Pulpit Rock here in town. And North Cheyenne Canyon has lots of hiking trails, and there are tons more behind Cheyenne Mountain up Old Stage Road. There are some in all the little towns on the way up to Woodland Park if you know where to look, but a few are closed right now. There are also some places to hike heading down highway 115. I suggest anyone interested hiking invest in the Pikes Peak Atlas.

[allprolab]

Of course there are 100's of trails! Our goal is to get further out of town on a little day trip with a nice hike. When researching places and looking at mapquest I kept seeing "natural forest" and the fact that national parks don't allow dogs stuck in my head and I kept thinking dogs weren't allowed in the areas I was looking at. My bad.

We've done a few trails at Palmer Park before. Very nice option in the middle of town. We've also been out to Red Rocks Open Space where we saw a bear a couple years ago.

To be more specific, what we'd like to do is get up early and drive a couple of hours out in the mountains and take a nice 4-5 hour hike someplace. I thought some areas didn't allow dogs, so I was more asking to narrow that down which I now know isn't necessary.

I do appreciate all the more local suggestions though because we'll be in town for nearly a week and will trying to hit up a different local hike daily.

[ryanek9freak]

Any of the trails off Gold Camp road are dog friendly, I take my dogs hiking all the time

[mollygee]

There seems to be a Nile Monitor Lizard (6ft,25 pounds) on the loose in Teller county............enjoy hikes, just be careful.

[otowi]

allprolab - you can take your dogs to any of those places. The exceptions are state parks, national parks, and maybe the Incline. Pretty much any other trail allows dogs. Another one in town to try is Stratton Open Space.