Hiking – Young Gulch

We hiked in two gulches to avoid concerns for high runoff stream crossings further up Young Gulch.  Beginning at 9 a.m., we first hiked out and back 3 miles (200' gain) in pretty Hewlett Gulch (saw deer on mountainside).  Then, we drove a short distance to Young Gulch where we hiked about out and back about 2 miles (300' gain) across bridges.  Two hikers were new to this area and really enjoyed seeing new territory.  After returning to the TH around 12:15, we drove a short distance to the Mishawaka restaurant where I had 12:30 reservations for our group to eat outside on the deck overlooking the Poudre River.  We enjoyed a great lunchtime together before carpooling back to Fort Collins.  The weather improved as the day progressed, so we had a nice blue sky the last few hours of our outing.