Name: Caribou Ranch
Rating: 4.0

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Dogs No Dogs

Features Birding · Fall Colors · Lake · River/Creek · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

Family Friendly Kids will love exploring the DeLonde Homestead and the Blue Bird Mine along this loop. Informative signs help them imagine what it was like to be a Colorado homesteader during the 19th Century.

This area is closed in spring (usually until July 1) for elk calving.

Overview

This is a pleasant hike for a relatively easy day. Along this hike, you'll be treated to mellow terrain and great scenery as you make your way onto the original Switzerland Trail grade and past the old DeLonde Homestead and Blue Bird Mine.

Need to Know

There are only a few spots that require attention for foot placement.

Description

Park at the Caribou Ranch Trailhead, located on CR 126 a few miles north of Nederland (take a sharp left after reaching the bottom of a steep hill to find the road). From the trailhead, follow DeLonde Trail through a pine forest for about 0.75 miles until reaching the first meadow. Continue on the singletrack to a trail junction with a doubletrack that marks the original narrow-gauge railway grade for the Switzerland Trail. Take a right. At the junction with Blue Bird Loop, you can go either way since the trail creates a nice 2-mile loop of double and singletrack that winds through open meadow and dense aspen-and-coniferous forest on the way to the DeLonde Homestead and Blue Bird Mine Access Trail. Upon reaching the Access Trail, take it north to experience the famous Blue Bird Mine.

After returning to the Blue Bird Loop and reaching the junction with the DeLonde Trail, simply follow it back the way you came to the parking area.

This system can easily be connected with several more miles of trails at the Mud Lake Open Space by using the Caribou Ranch Link.

Flora & Fauna

The trail leads through Ponderosa pine into open meadows that have abundant wildflowers.
The meadows are surrounded with aspen that allow for great fall color.

Contacts

Land Manager: Boulder County, CO - Parks and Open Space

Shared By:

John Scalese with improvements by Nick Wilder

Full Details

Trail Ratings

4.0 from 28 votes

#1

in Caribou Ranch Open Space

#654

Overall

4.0 from 28 votes

5 Star		29%
4 Star		54%
3 Star		14%
2 Star		0%
1 Star		4%

Recommended Route Rankings

#1

in Caribou Ranch Open Space

#134

in Colorado

#654

Overall

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16,883 Since Oct 23, 2015

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Photos

Fantastic fall colors so close to Boulder.

Sep 24, 2016 near Nederland, CO

Sweeping meadows and aspens along historic grounds.

Sep 24, 2016 near Nederland, CO

The fall brings out nice colors in and around the large meadow.

Oct 23, 2015 near Nederland, CO

1 Comment

Weather

Current Trail Conditions

All Clear 51 days ago

Update Conditions See History

Add Your Check-In

Check-Ins

Jul 14, 2024

Callie Summerlin

4.8mi — 2h 00m

Feb 10, 2023

Jody Rae

Oct 2, 2022

Stephen Pack

Jul 22, 2022

Gina G

Mar 13, 2022

Allison Klein

With snow shoes

Nov 7, 2021

Nicole Priesmeyer

Oct 23, 2021

MUrt ErKal

With Mike

Aug 18, 2021

Ali L

Nice loop with old mining buildings. 4.8mi — 1h 30m

Dec 20, 2020

Kim Chrislip

Snowshoe out to the old ranch and back. Super windy. 3.1mi — 1h 00m

Oct 1, 2020

Tyler Kilpatrick

Sep 26, 2020

Joe Scharf

Sep 13, 2020

Trevor Gerring

Aug 17, 2020

Sam Hayman

Aug 6, 2020

Kylie Yurga

Jul 27, 2020

Andrea Theisen

Jul 25, 2020

Michael Sonderman

8h 05m

Jul 14, 2020

Gina G

Jan 18, 2020

Jody Rae

Oct 13, 2019

Stephen Pack

Oct 4, 2019

Luke Farlow

12h 05m

Sep 28, 2019

Jeff Saxsma

Walked to Homestead and enjoyed changing Aspens along the route 3mi

Sep 22, 2019

Richard Casey

Aug 24, 2019

Kat W

4.8mi — 2h 00m

Feb 9, 2019

Kimberly Taylor

w/ kemar 5.1mi

Jan 2, 2019

Jeff Dowdy

Nice easy hike down to DeLonde Homestead. Some snow cover but not enough for snowshoeing. A few cross country skiing groups around though. overall… 2.8mi

Nov 26, 2018

Dan Holdaway

Nov 19, 2018

Tracey Ziniel

Oct 26, 2018

Holly Schnicke

Oct 20, 2018

TheGnat .

Sep 23, 2018

lindsey n.

4.8mi

Sep 15, 2018

Kathleen Danilchick

Aug 13, 2018

N G

This was a nice easy hike. We went early on a Monday and saw only a handful of people on the trail. — 2h 00m

Jul 16, 2018

François Leblanc

Jul 4, 2018

Alex DeWolfe

Jul 2, 2018

Lynn Lester

5mi

Jul 1, 2018

Mark Paulson

Just leaving 5mi

Mar 27, 2018

Kathryn Prendergast

Great easy trail, was slushy in some spots and snow packed in others. 4.8mi — 1h 50m

Mar 10, 2018

Rob Laucius

Feb 23, 2018

Matt Culpepper

(5\400) 4.8mi

Jan 27, 2018

Hunter R

Packed snow, snowshoes not necessary! Traction aids could be nice, but not essential. 4mi

Jan 5, 2018

Brian Rempel

4.6mi

Dec 26, 2017

Jeni Umble

Dec 10, 2017

Brian Chenault

Dec 10, 2017

Heather Mendenhall

Sunday hike with my ❤️

Nov 11, 2017

Leslie Neidermyer

Sep 4, 2017

Mic Krezek

Great hike...watch out for the moose!

Aug 6, 2017

Christian Robins

Jul 11, 2017

Maggie Wallace

4.4mi

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Caribou Ranch

“Come to Caribou Ranch to experience beautiful wildflower meadows, the DeLonde Homestead, and the famous Blue Bird Mine. ”

4.8

7.7

Lollipop

8,755' 2,669 m

8,533' 2,601 m

353' 108 m

365' 111 m

3%

11%

Toolbox

Know This Trail?

Dogs No Dogs

Features Birding · Fall Colors · Lake · River/Creek · Views · Wildflowers · Wildlife

Family Friendly Kids will love exploring the DeLonde Homestead and the Blue Bird Mine along this loop. Informative signs help them imagine what it was like to be a Colorado homesteader during the 19th Century.

Overview

Need to Know

Description

Flora & Fauna

Contacts

Shared By:

Trail Ratings

#1

#654

#1

#134

#654

Photos

1 Comment

Comment Type:

Weather

Current Trail Conditions

Check-Ins

Nearby Recommended Routes

School Bus Loop

Fourmile Creek - Gold Hill Connection

Rainbow Lakes

High Lonesome Backpacking Route

South Arapaho Peak

Long Lake Loop

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