Casper's Wilderness Park

Two weeks ago we went on an easy hike not far from our home, out off the Ortega Hwy.  We went to Casper's Wilderness Park and hiked a 2.8 mile trail.  The admission fee to this park is $5.00 and it is beautiful.  There were camping and picnic tables.  I think we are going to buy an annual pass, as we have already paid $15.00 in parking and entrance fees.  

The trailhead was located by this wonderful old windmill, it (the trailhead) took us a little while to find, but once we did, it was a really easy hike.  This area has a lot of empty horse stalls and the trail head was behind them.  We only saw 2 other people and they were riding their horses. 

 The trail alternated between open meadows and walks under oak and sycamore trees, we also crossed a creek bed a couple of times.  The creek was, of course, dry.   The trail was soft sand which made for a little more effort in the walking, but it wasn't hard.  Do yourself a favor and pack a picnic lunch for the end of your hike.  There were a lot of pretty little spots under the trees and although I saw some cars, we didn't see any people.  It was a nice quiet space.

 I've joined a website called trails.com at the cost of $50.00.  You can go on the website and put in a zip code or choose any area in the United States and it will give you all the trails located in that area and information about them: easy, hard, length of hike, what to expect trail wise, scenery, directions, change in elevation, costs etc.  It has become a great tool and we have found things close to our home and in areas we are visiting.

 Its great to be outside moving, enjoying nature and bonding.