Tom Schweich  

Trailhead: Stegosaurus Lot

From the trailhead in Stegosaurus Lot, the Dakota Ridge trail goes northeast straight up the western limb of the hogback.

Trail turns south.

View of Interstate 70 at the mouth of Mount Vernon Canyon. The third road at right is US Highway 40. The parking lot for Matthews/Winters Park is at lower left. The highway is really noisy, especially the trucks using their Jake Brakes.

Likely Toxicoscordion paniculatum whose leaf tips were scorched by the Hogback Fire (2023).

Viewpoint of Rooney Valley and Green Mountain. This valley is threatened by development.

Burned ponderosas and junipers at the observation site.

This is where I found just two Physaria. They were P. montana.

Area burned by the Hogback Fire to the southwest.	Area burned by the Hogback Fire to the northwest.

Rattlesnake along the trail

Possible Physaria vitulifera × bellii.

The Dakota Ridge trail comes off the ridge and down into this little “meadow.” It is not clear whether this meadow is natural or an atrefact of previous mining.

View northward from burned to unburned areas.

Junction: Zorro Trail.

The Zorro Trail goes down to a parking lot along Rooney Road.

This trail junction is located in a small flat between two higher parts of Dinosaur Ridge. This flat is thought to be a wind gap that is a preserved erosion channel (Scott, 1976).

The Dakota Ridge Trail continues south.

The thing to see here is the two women and their unleashed dogs. I had previously talked to them and asked them to leash their dogs. Four minutes before I took this photo (by the timestamps on the photo), I took the photo of the rattlesnake beside the trail.

Junction: Alameda Avenue

Junction: Alameda Avenue

Junction: Red Rocks Trail

Junction: Bail Out

Junction: Dakota Ridge South Trail

End of Trail in a loop.