I had been there in high school with our church youth group and I remember it being a fun and easy hike, but then again I was 16 and did not have a nine year old with me!
We had plan to go there a few years ago, but due to the weather we chickened out and went somewhere else, but this year we were feeling brave and up for a challenge.
Devil's head is an old look out tower on a top of a mountain that is used for spotting wild fires in the mountains. The look out tower is only accessible by a 3 mile hike and then a climb up some super spooky stairs ( I did not remember them being this high or scary back in 2000!
So after looking at some pictures and scouting the reviews and directions we had our day all mapped out!
If you plan to take this trip, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take road 507, unless of course you are a fan of being terrified by 80 degree inclines in which you are looking at the hood of your car, while driving 7 miles an hour on a one lane dirt road with sheer cliff sides on one side and jutted, rocky mountains on the other and what felt like hundreds of switchbacks and ruts ,while your poor car is doing everything in its power to not go sliding backwards, for 30 minutes. (THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION, I am being 100% serious)
There were points where I was sure that we were going to die, but what choice did we have?? It's not like we could have turned around!
When we finally arrived in the sandy parking lot, I wanted to kiss the level, solid ground, after I stopped shaking, but I did not, we had a hike to make!
It was almost worth the perilous journey up the mountain once we got to hiking...
It was just as beautiful as I remember and it was another perfecto fall day... The trees, the colors the fresh air! It is such a blessing to live in such an amazingly, beautiful place!!
The hike starts with a pretty spooky path into the mountains where a tornado last year took out most of the trees on the mountain side. It was a little eerie to see huge pine and aspen tree totally uprooted! Glad we weren't there that day!
Yipes!
After you get past the initial devastation, it is a a beautiful walk through the aspens!
She was in awe!
After a hike rock climb through the aspens, this is the view...
Holy Rocky Mountains, batman!
A nice family snapped this pic for us! Thankfully all of the people we met on the trail were super nice and friendly, no creepy murderers today!
Aaaannnddd, we made it!!
After some contemplating of the steep climb up, and some educational reading, we braved the stairway to heaven, to the lookout tower!
The tower!
The Rocky Mountain side
Eastern Colorado side!
You can see over a 100 mile radius on both sides of the tower, it was just so beautiful!
We spent about an hour in the tower, reading all of the articles and looking at all of the pictures people have posted there and chatting with the family that lives there in the summer and marveling at the beauty that God created!
PS, you better believe that once we were at the top of that look out tower and I had cell service, I map quested a different route home, far, far away from the ridiculousness that is road 507!
It was such a wonderful adventure to share with Callie and I am so glad that were brave enough to make it up the road and up those ladders! Mission #Two was successful!
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