Alderfer/Three Sisters Park
LocationAlderfer/Three Sisters West Trailhead
5136 South Le Masters Road Evergreen, CO 80439 The oversized parking is located at the West Trailhead. We drove past the East trailhead and it looked too tight to turn a trailer around. |
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PDF Map
Trail Map
Park Fees
Free.
Trailer Parking
There are designated "oversized" parking spots on the top or north part of the parking lot. In the picture below cars are parked in this area. We arrived early on a weekday to claim our trailer parking. By the time we had finished our ride there were cars parking in the remaining "oversized" parking area.
BathroomsYes, permanent restrooms.
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WaterNone available.
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Mounting
There were lots of big rocks to stand on to mount Sam.
Footing
Bluebird Meadow, Homestead Trail, Bearberry Trail and Silver Fox Trail - Soft and wide trail
Mountain Muhly Trail - Extremely rocky, I would call this trail a black diamond and upgrade all black diamonds to "crazy people trails"
Sisters Trail and Ponderosa - Moderately rocky but doable
Mountain Muhly Trail - Extremely rocky, I would call this trail a black diamond and upgrade all black diamonds to "crazy people trails"
Sisters Trail and Ponderosa - Moderately rocky but doable
Horse Hazards
Rocky trails are the biggest horse hazards we encountered. At one point Lisa just closed her eyes, gave Blue his head and held on. Our horses didn't hesitate at all over the rocks but there were some scary parts where we were walking over sheer rock and I was worried about our traction with full shoes.
Chosen Trail
When Lisa and I rode this trail I was really trying to stick to as many green circle trails as possible. Sam is fully Shod but Blue was barefoot with front boots. I think mountain trail folks have a very different idea of what a blue square is compared to a green circle or diamond. I would consider some of the blue squares we rode to be very difficult trails. We started on Bluebird Meadow and turned left on Homestead trail. We again kept left to stay on Mountain Muhly Trail. Mountain Muhly Trail was marked as a blue square but I would call it difficult and rocky even though the service road was wide. We stayed left at the Mt. Muhly and Coneflower Trail fork. Mountain Muhly Trail continued and narrowed from a service road to a single-track that was extremely rocky. The trail improved after the next fork with Coneflower and then we picked up Bearberry trail for an easier trail to Ponderosa and then Silver Fox Trail. Overall we rode about 4.6 miles in about 1 hr and 15 minutes with stops for grazing. Blue was a rock-star over the rocky trail and both of our horses walked and gaited extremely fast. They both did not slow down going up-hill and acted like they had lots of energy left even at the end of our ride. If you have a slower quarter-horse, allow 2-3x the amount of time for this trail!
Trail Experience
We started off going left out of the parking on to pick up the Bluebird Meadow trail. It was nice and wide and soft.
We had a pretty view. We traveled over a sort of board-walk meant to leave most of the meadow untouched. A section of the boardwalk was a wooden bridge. Our horses did just fine walking over it.
We took the first left to pick-up the Homestead Trail .
We kept left again to follow the Mountain Muhly Trail. The Homestead Trail is the fork to the right. If you want to avoid the rocky trail ahead go right at the next fork on the Bearberry trail
We again kept left to continue on the Mountain Muhly Trail. If you want to avoid the rocky trail ahead go right on the Bearberry trail
For a while the Mountain Muhly Trail was ok. It was a wide old service road.
We crossed Buffalo Creek and went up a hill. There was a strange object by the creek but our horses didn't seem to notice.
The Mt. Muhly Trail became a little rocky but nothing too bad.
This is the fork for the Coneflower Trail. I highly recommend that if you are not an advanced rider you should turn right here and take the Coneflower Trail.
The Mt. Muhly trail became a lot more rocky and challenging.
We went up some pretty rocky hills and then back again downhill.
The trail narrowed to a single-track as we rounded the northern corner and started south. We walked across a lot of rock faces. I put my camera away for a while while I held on but here are a few pictures.
Blue was a rock-star and tackled these rock faces without any hesitation.
We came up to an old cabin right before the 2nd Coneflower fork.
This is the 2nd fork of Mt. Muhly and Coneflower. We crossed the bridge and continued on Mt. Muhly. The trail got much better. We passed some more old buildings and continued uphill for a good trot.
We were not quite tired and took a left on Bearberry trail.
This trail was a lot less stressful.
We stayed right to follow the Bearberry trail to the Sisters Trail.
It was a really pretty trail with better footing. We picked up the Ponderosa trail turning right shortly after.
We turned right onto Silver Fox Trail. Looking straight ahead the Ponderosa Trail looked a little more challenging and we were ready for a break. We grazed and chatting in the beautiful meadow before heading back to the parking lot.
Rating
Moderately difficult to difficult. I was not prepared for how rocky Mt. Muhly Trail would be. I have a different idea of what a blue square trail is like. Our horses made it and were rock solid so I am very glad we had a good ride. You can have a better ride by avoiding the northern loop of Mountain Muhly and staying on Bearberry or Coneflower. This was a pretty short ride for us but it was still nice to get outside and eat some grass in the mountain meadow. I am not sure that I would go back to ride this trail again.