Seven Bridges Trail Colorado Springs

Location: North Cheyenne Cañon

Trail Type: Out and Back

Terrain: Moderate Incline Dirt and Gravel

Length: 3+ Miles Round Trip

Today we had a great barebones basic hike. No extra gear. No snacks. Just the four of us and two big bottles of water. We do love challenging hikes that require planning and packing up, but today we enjoyed the simplicity of a gorgeous, moderately easy mountain trek.

While Seven Bridges Trail is not marked along the road, it was easy to find by following North Cheyenne Cañon’s online directions. We parked in the lot at the entrance of Gold Camp Road and hiked up the closed gravel road until the creek crosses underneath. To the right we found the trail and went left at the first divide.

Seven Bridges Trail is exactly what its name suggests. The trail zig-zags a rocky creek and the kiddos had fun keeping track of the number of bridges as we crossed them. Hiking in only sneakers and basic snow boots, we did have to slow it down a bit on icy patches, but in January it could have been much worse. We had forty-degree weather with sunshine, and on the way up the trail we quickly shed our layers. We enjoyed stopping near bridge three to relax on some sunny boulders and watch the water rush by.

On the hike down, we slowly bundled back up. Once we reached the trailhead we celebrated by partaking in one of our favorite activities: throw stuff (rocks/sticks/ice) in the water and watch it go!

We were happy to meet many other hiking families and people with dogs along Gold Camp Road on our way back down to the car.

Muddy Water

Recently, as we headed up I-35 on an adventure to visit family, Baby Nerd randomly asked, “So is like all of the water the same water? Does it all touch?” She then pointed out the most memorable waters she has visited, which included Lake Erie, Puget Sound, the Pacific Ocean, and the Missouri River. We agreed that yes, in a way, all of the waters are connected. Of course being complete English nerds, the two adults in our outfit reveled in the possibilities of her metaphors.

No matter your beliefs, its pretty obvious Americans as a whole have been spending the past two months being kind of, well, shitty to one another. As soon as we speak out for one thing, it means we are against another. Black and white, right and wrong -never mind the gray areas. This negativity has been building and will continue to snowball until who-knows-when. Maybe it is necessary. But holy cow, how can we even truly understand or formulate our own beliefs unless we take time to escape?

Back to the water. Have you ever noticed how grounding it is to stare at moving water? After a whirlwind of a week, not too long ago, we went for a hike with a few close family members. Our goal was to burn off some steam by trying out some old goose and duck calls we have had in the family for a while, but that didn’t quite work out. Instead we found a path surrounded by tall prairie grass and just kept walking. We played around, joking, pushing, and stepping on each other’s shadows until we came to a bench overlooking the Muddy Mo. Then we stopped and sat in silence. Our Nerd Boy throwing in sticks and rocks; the rest of us quietly watching them float downstream in our own weird, made-up spiritual ceremony. Churning oceans are usually a symbol for change, but that day the pull of the river did the trick. When we were ready, we simply stood up and walked away feeling a little bit lighter.

Finding Adventure Close to Home

A few months ago we set a goal: hike once a week for one year. Each hike has to be at a different location. We got the idea from the 52 Hike Challenge we saw on Instagram. The gorgeous pictures of mountain views, clear streams, and lush forests featured in the #52hikechallenge hashtags gave us the idea that this challenge would be an amazing addition to our regular daily lives. We did not take into account that we live no less than a full day’s drive from any sort of mountain or dense forest. They don’t call our part of the country fly-over country for nothing. We literally live in the dead center of fly-over country. So much so that people don’t even stop in our airport for layovers.

Today marked our 16^th hike. With zero mountains and zillions of acres of farmland, our biggest challenge so far has been finding different trails close to home. We know we will be visiting several different cities in the next few months and we look forward to exploring new terrain, but for now we are making the most of what we’ve got.

In these first 16 weeks, we have learned a lot about our local trails. For example, today we thought we would check out a suburban trail for a short hike with extended family and found a pretty sweet mountain biking park with legit obstacles that were fun for the kiddos on foot, and will be even more awesome when we return with our bikes in the near future.

We have discovered prairie reserves in the middle of town, SUP rental just minutes from our house, and hike-in lean-to camping just a few hours from our city. The hiking challenge is growing to be about so much more than just the hiking. It has pushed us to take our usual outdoor adventures a bit further in order to diversify our trail use. One of our most memorable hikes was the one where we started on a familiar flat limestone trail and ended up wading through a shallow river exploring sandbars.

We have gotten closer to nature discovering unusual insects, learning more about turtles and fish, and have really learned to choose our hiking locations according to the weather. Wet and muggy days are better for hiking in open prairie, while the woods are more enjoyable on dry, cool days.

And we are learning to love our gigantic, ever-changing sky. Some of our best photo ops are set by brilliant blues, feathery wisps of white over pink, intense goldenrod sunsets, or moody rolling graphite clouds. As the days shorten, we are also finding more opportunities to snap our shots when the shadows are long and the light is at just the right angle.

We still absolutely love the bigger wonders of our world like the mountains and the ocean, and we absolutely can’t wait to try our hiking shoes out on unfamiliar grounds. But while we are waiting, we are learning to recognize the little gems that are close to home.