Trailhead

The best place to pick up this trail is to take Allegheny Blvd west from Centennial to Front Royal Drive. Turn left here and the next street is Coldwater Drive. Turn left here. There is limited parking along the street here near the end of the street. A opening in the fence provides access to the trail. There is also parking on Allegheny Blvd, where the the trail could be accessed easily in the past. Now there is a rock spillway that you would have to cross to get to the trail. This is mostly not a problem unless there is water present.

Trail Summary

There is some confusion about the name of this trail. 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 documents do not show this trail as part of any planned trail. This might be due to the fact that this is private land however, it is not posted against use. Further along the trail, it enters the Pike National Forest.

The Quarry Trail as I have named it for lack of a given name heads west from the trailhead through open grasslands and sections of scrub oak. Outbound, you will mostly be climbing. The first mile is mostly moderate with a few steeper sections. The trail is single track, mostly of dirt so it can be muddy at times. There are a number of places where the trail will branch but comes back together again after a short distance. The primary trail head mostly west and somewhat towards the north. A secondary trail also heads west but drifts a little towards the south. As the trail climbs the front range, it will become increasingly steeper.

Quarry Trail - 5.20 miles

Starting at the fence on Coldwater Drive, the trail takes off to the south west. After a short bit, it will turn mostly west and start climbing. The trail is surprisingly well defined and usable for an informal trail. It appears to be mostly decomposed granite so it should not suffer from mud. This section is a mixture of open meadows and clusters of scrub oak with a pleasant mixture of wild flowers in the early summer time. The trail is mostly about 2-3 feet wide and has plenty of clearance in the first mile. I would say that a skilled mountain biker would find this a good moderate level ride. In the first mile, there will be a few steeper sections of 50 yards or so where the climb gets harder. There are a number of trails branching off of the main trail so if you get easily confused, scratch a mark in the dirt to aid on the return trip.

After about a mile, the trail will enter into a more treed area. From this point on, pine trees will dominate the terrain. You will lose some of the vistas that you had but it might be nice in summer as you will gain the shade. Around this point, you will encounter a barbwire fence on the right of the trail. I always make a point of remembering this since if I don't see if on the way down, I have probably taken a different (or wrong) trail. There is a point just past 1 mile where the trail from the Blodgett Space joins this trail. The Blodgett Space trail goes right and it is easy to miss this when coming back down since it is wider looks to be the "trail" we are following. If you end up on this trail, you will be about a mile away from where you parked your car when it lets out on Centennial/Woodmen Rd.

From this point on, the trail will be progressively steeper. Also, I am not sure if this part of the trail is considered part of the Foothills Trail any longer but since it is unnamed, I have choosen to name it as such. The steepness continues until just before 2 miles where it will open up into a more open area. In the winter, it is hard to find your way to this point as the trail is not very distinct. In the summer, you can pick out the trail and there are a series of rack carins that have been layout to help find the way. It is about here that the trail gets lost. There was a rock carin to the north of the clearing that I did not follow but I have been told that that leads to the summit. I had thought it went down into the dry creek draw and did not follow it. Next time I will follow it. Since it was my understanding that the last part of the trip to the summit was a bushwack, I headed up from the clearing. I tried to follow what looked to be a reasonable path through the fallen trees and growth. This worked until the very last section. Here the terrain got much more difficult and I did not have time to explore further and worsening weather convinced me to head back down.

Since I have talked to people who have been to the summit on this trail, I know there must be a better route and will continue to search for it. Also, for those who are into geocaching, there are two caches on the trail and one at the summit. There are also more in the area just not on this trail.