Fall in Palmer Lake

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Palmer Lake; maybe the last no shirt day for awhile since we have some colder weather moving in. While fall in Colorado isn't like Vermont or Virginia, it is beautiful in its own way with the Gambling Oak turning red and the Aspens turning yellow. Here are a few photos I took while walking my dogs today. I do just about all my runs from my house, so these photos show the types of terrain around here. Basically from my house I can run flat, rolling, or very hilly depending on which way I go.

Looking at town from above the lake. The mountain in the right of the background is Chataqua, and the canyon there to the left of Chataqua is called Limbaugh canyon; we live right at the base of it. Some great single track trails go up the canyon.

Spruce Mountain, a few miles north of town; there are two 8 mile loops in the meadow and a 4 mile loop up onto the mesa and around the edge of it. This area is all part of the Greenland Open Space (there is a 50K here in the spring).

Some fall colors on the road to my house.

The small lake in town has a smooth dirt trail around it; I have measured it to be .83 miles, so 6 loops is 5 miles. This lake is the Northern end of a trail called the New Santa Fe trail, which runs for 15 miles south. It gradually loses about 1200 feet over the 15 miles, but is basically flat and smooth, and each mile is marked. A great trail for biking and running, particularly in the winter when the higher trails are snow covered.