After that, I hopped back in my car and drove 10 minutes to the next trailhead. It was about 1.5 miles of trail or so between the two spots. When I got to the Ethel Harold Trailhead of the Walker Ranch Loop, I was the only one there, which was kind of cool.
It was a beautiful day for a hike, probably 60 degrees at most. I'm kind of a slow hiker, but still didn't see many people on the trail, on this end.
I've taken that pic before, but it you couldn't see anything nearly as well because of the fog.
After about a mile on the Walker Ranch Loop, I came to the Eldorado Trail trailhead.
You start out down in the canyon, near South Boulder River, and work your way up to a ridge at about 7,600ft. Along the way, you come across an interesting sign:
There's about 2 miles before you reach the ridge, and the trail raises slowly towards it, taking several switchbacks, some buried in the trees, others at the edge, giving a glimpse of mountains further back.
From there, you head down into Eldorado Canyon. I was planning on taking pics of the view from there, but started talking to another hiker that was heading the same way as I was, that had never been to Eldorado before, and it slipped my mind. Scary, I know.
The trail turns and follows the ridge for a while before turning and heading down into the canyon. Here you lose most of the shade that's provided along the way up from Walker Ranch, and start walking on a trail that's in the sun most of the time. There's trees every once in a while, but the majority of this end of the hike is in the sun.
After a fair distance, you are down under the cliffs that have been closed, with trees hiding them from you. The trail follows the side of the mountain around, passing through several gullies, and for the most part is almost flat, barely going downhill at all.
A bit farther down the trail, you start going through trees a bit more, and climbing back up slightly, over some rocks, though nothing extreme, and enter into Eldorado Canyon State Park. After entering the park, the trail begins to go down hill through lots of switchbacks, and gets steep in a few places. You also start to see more and more people as you get farther into the park and closer to the trailhead.
You finally end up down at the road above the river in the canyon, which is the trailhead in Eldorado.
