Trailhead

The Foothills trail can be accessed at many points along the way since it runs along side local streets. I generally park near the shopping center at Vindicator and Centennial and follow the patch up and down Flying W Ranch Road. For a longer course, parking at the trail head in Ute Valley Park and taking the path along side the roadway to the west is another option. Parking at Wilson Ranch Pool is another good place to park.

Trail Summary

Details about the Foothills Trail can be somewhat confusing. I have looked at a number of documents from the city and the definition of the trail seems to change in each document. The latest document descibes the Foothills Trail as having 2 sections. The Northern and Southern portions of the trail. The description shows that Foothills Trail is a trail runs from 31st street and Colorado Ave north to Oak Valley Ranch Park. A lot of the southern part of the trail involves being routed onto streets so I do not think of that portion as trail or at least the type of trail that most of us are looking for.

The northern portion is trail. It ranges between 30th Street and Flying W Road on the south and Oak Valley Ranch Park on the north. Some earlier documents from the city show it to go further north and into the Blodgett Open Space area. If you follow the dirt to the west of Oak Valley Ranch Park, you can get over to the trail that I map as the Quarry Trail. The city map has the Foothills Trail following this trail for about a mile then looping down into the Blodgett Open Space and eventually joining the West Woodmen Trail. On the south end, you can follow 30th street for about 1/3 mile and pick up the bike path on the east side of 30th and follow this down to where it hits 31st Street. Most of this would be paved pathway.

The southern portion involves using the section of paved paths south of Garden of the Gods Road down to 31st street where is ends at the Garden of the Gods. From there, you would follow the bike lane on the street to Colorado Avenue.

FootHills Trail 4.5+

Starting at the shopping center at Vindication and Centennial, the trail heads up Flying W Ranch Road. The first 1/4 mile is on the sidewalks or on the roadway using the bike lane. There is gravel pathway for most of the route after this point to where it ends at 30th Street. The gravel pathway changes the side of the road at several points along the way so you will have to cross the roadway if you want to stay on gravel pathway. There is not much to say about the trail, it is a basic urban trail that parallels the road between housing or light industry on either side. On the road, there are bike lanes in each direction which can be handy if weather conditions make it difficult to use the pathway. The trail on the east side of the road is shaded and in winter will tend to have snow cover and/or wet conditions at times. Just following this section of the Foothills Trail is about 4.5 miles round trip.

If you want to add some distance to the main loop or do a shorter and flatter course, there is a gravel trail that heads north by the concrete drainage ditch. This patch will follow the drainage up into Oak Valley Ranch to a small park. Most of this trail is gravel but there is a small segment that is a narrow dirt trail. Since the trail goes behind some apartments on Allegheny, is not the best views. Trashy comes to mind here.

I should point out that this trail, the trails in Blodgett Open Space, and the trails I call the Blodgett - AFA trails are all connected so that you can extend your hike, run, or ride by linking them together. By overlaying the different trail kml or kmz files in Google Earth, you can see how they fit together and selectively turning on and off the different trails, create a course to meet your needs.