Google Earth satellite image of route

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Rating: 6/10

Castle Gulch is a neat little trail out of Lefthand Canyon, and lies a few more miles beyond the popular Lefthand trail. The entrance is about two miles east of Jamestown, and can be easily missed traveling westbound if you're not familiar with it. Starting out, it gets right down to business with some rocks, but smoothes out a short distance later. After driving through the woods a ways, there is a short spur to the left at a fork, which leads to a nice lookout to the Flatirons and the plains. Back at the aforementioned fork, there is a FR 287 sign, immediately after which, the rock garden section starts and goes the remainder to the top of the gulch. This rock garden earns it the 6-rating and is the best part of the trail. At the top of the gulch lies some downed trees over an excavated road (now just a big ditch), all courtesy of a nearby disgruntled land owner who didn't want public traffic on a public road coming near his place. Another road does continue from here to the east and eventually circles around near the top of this closed section. From the top, and looking to the north, are views to the burnt forest (not pictured) caused by the Overland Fire in the fall of 2003. To the southeast, there are additional better views of Boulder and the Flatirons.

The trip pictured below was on 12/26/03, and I was traveling with my friend, Paul. We returned the way we came, though I understand it does link up to the Lefthand trail via, I'm guessing, Spruce Gulch, best I can tell. Perhaps someone who knows the area better can help me confirm. And actually, we had taken the road down this way for a bit, which is where the flex shots in the ditch were taken.