A hike and a half in Castlewood Canyon

Oh my wow! Castlewood Canyon is super gorgeous! There's a wide variety of trails from wheelchair accessible to crazy difficult. The trail we took was somewhere in between. But when you have a chronic illness, moderate becomes difficult and difficult becomes impossible.

The first thing we did.... Wait, let me back up. On this trip, we decided to take the two oldest grand-kids, mainly, I think, so that I could take pictures of them taking pictures. Or at least that's how it turned out. I'm kidding, of course. It was so they could help Gary push and pull me up and down the rocks.

Anyway, when we first arrived we headed right for the main overlook. What a view! We really weren't expecting anything like it. We saw part of it from the road, but, well, you can see from the picture that this is no ordinary place. 

Now, a couple days before, I had wrenched my back and I was recovering, so we had planned in advance to take the easy path. It winds around the top of the canyon for a bit and then through a wildflower meadow. Nice path for someone like me, right?

But of course, between everyone else wanting to check out the canyon floor and me being my usual “This illness is not stopping me” self, down we went into a steep descent. 

And you know, it was actually a fairly easy path down. It really was. However, there were a few spots where I required assistance.

And then, there were a few more. And a few more and.... well, you get the idea.

Backing up again here, once we got to the bottom of the canyon, the forested path ran next to a rocky stream. In a couple spots, the water had pooled up invitingly. One family we passed was playing with their son in the water. And you betcha I was tempted. 

The pathway down to the water was do-able, but back up? Not so much fun for me on this particular day. I do have days where I am invincible, at least for someone with Lupus. This just wasn't one of those days.

And the trail kept getting longer and more difficult for me to traverse. 

So, Amber and Tia being the awesome grand-kids they are, decided to scout ahead while Gary took over the hand holding and lifting chores.

And speaking of Lupus, one advantage the lower path had was the shade. Up above, the sun was beating on the pavement, but down there, it wasn't so bad. And pictures! So many photo opportunities. My favorite ones were of the path itself, which looked somewhat like a leafy tunnel in spots.

There was also a place where, if you were able, you could climb up a steep slope and out onto the rock in the picture below. That's a long way up, right? We later discovered there might be a way out onto the rock from above, rather than below. Wish we had known that sooner.

Now, back to the story. I'm thinking that once we actually got to the bottom, we walked about a mile, possibly a mile and a half, before we realized that we missed the loop that was supposed to herd us back around.

It was about that time that the girls came back from their scouting mission to tell us that no way was “gramsicles” making it over the rocky stream at the dam, then up the rest of the 4 mile trail to the top on the opposite end from whence we came. It would be easier to turn around.

So, back we went. By this time, I was gulping water like crazy and praying for a swift end to my misery. Tia was giving me hands up the big steps and Gary was pushing from the rear. I'm sure it was quite a sight.

I'm stubborn, you guys, so I actually crawled up a few rough spots and refused help. It's kind of my thing. Amber, of course, was her usual athletic self and way ahead of us. It's OK you guys, she's 19. She was perfectly safe.

I should explain at this point that in order to descend into the canyon, we had to go down this rough wood and soil pack “staircase.” That was all good. Coming back up, though, well, huff, puff, sit, sip some water, go again. You can do this! Sweat, groan, strain, etc. You have no idea how glad I was to see the top. But I swear, you guys, it was all worth it! I felt like I had just ascended Everest.

This is just a small part of it.

The breeze at the top step! Oh man, that was the most refreshing thing I've ever felt in my life! We took our sweet time walking the easy paved route back to the car, stopping every once in while to take photos of some interesting trees, rock formations and such. 

We filled up our water bottles at the trail-head spout. I also started something by taking off my shoes and socks and spraying my feet. Man, that was nice!

Then, we hopped into the car and drove to the trail-head parking lot where we would have ended up, had I been feeling better that day. It was decided that next time, we would start there so I could see the dam and all. 

Last stop on the trip was a convenience store where we stuffed our faces with whatever our own personal tastes were craving and bought a lot more water. Every water bottle we had with us was empty by the time we got back home. And we had a lot of bottles.

Castlewood Canyon was a toughie for me, but so very worth it! 

Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to the return trip! Ya, even if I have to be carried!