My husband loves to push me out of my comfort zone (but thankfully knows when I’ve really had enough!) We recently headed to Yampa, CO to camp (see my review of the camp ground here), and unbeknownst to me, he realized one of his “must do” hikes was nearby – The Devil’s Causeway. He claims this was a mere coincidence, I’m not sure! So what I thought was going to be a short hike through a beautiful meadow of wildflowers with a reservoir in the background, turned into a four hour incredible hike! (But don’t worry, we went prepared with great hiking boots, tons of water and a picnic lunch!)
We’ve hiked all around the world, and it’s fair to say that Colorado has some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere you go. That being said, I can safely say that this hike is one of the most beautiful I have ever been on!
The hike starts at the end of road 900 out of Yampa when it dead ends into the Stillwater Reservoir (it’s probably a good 30 minute drive out of Yampa).
At the beginning of the trailhead there’s a split, head to the left along the reservoir or to the right through the meadow. We were following trail #119 and followed the signs to the right.
We were warned when we stopped at the ranger station in town that the mosquitos were bad, but it was ridiculous when we got out of the car, they swarmed us! And sadly they didn’t let up for most of the way, even at higher elevations! So bring your bug spray, we sure wish we had! (I’m still itching as I write this….)
At the beginning of our hike, we saw a sign that said Guard Dogs on Duty. I’ve never seen anything like this before! Apparently, sheep are allowed to roam in the forest, but they have sheep dogs with them who are prepared to protect the flock. The sign gives tips on what to do if you encounter the sheep or dogs, and luckily we didn’t have to put any of that to use.
The beginning of the hike was a nice walk through rolling hills in a meadow with beautiful mountain and reservoir views. The wild flowers through the meadow were incredible, I’ve never seen anything like it. There were so many different varieties and colors, it was beautiful!
Eventually we left the meadow and headed into a more forested area (and the mosquitoes followed!) We were headed in a different direction, and as we got breaks in the forest, we saw beautiful mountain peaks ahead of us. My husband pointed to one and said that’s where we’re headed, and I thought he had no idea what he was talking about (but little did I know, we did end up on top of one, and it was incredible!)
The forest gave way to rockier terrain along a pretty serious ledge. It wasn’t too narrow, so it wasn’t dangerous, but it gave my vertigo a little bit of a run for my money. We had been easily climbing the entire hike, but once we left the forest cover it started to become more evident that we were climbing, and we were at a higher elevation at that point too. When we got to this point we were also rewarded with a beautiful view of a mountain lake. It was pretty amazing to see the lake surrounded by the mountain peaks reflecting in the water.
The rocky area led to a beautiful meadow near the top of the mountain, and we were starting to see more snow! From the meadow we could see the switchbacks that would take us the rest of the way up. We were both a little tired, we were getting a little bit of a cold and hadn’t slept well the night before, but we decided that we were so close that we were going to make it to the top, and headed up the switchbacks! A couple areas were covered in snow, which I didn’t really like climbing over on my way down, but on the way up it wasn’t too bad. The switchbacks weren’t very steep at all, and made for a nice approach to the top.
And then we were on top of the world! We could see all the way back down to Stillwater Reservoir, and on the other side was a beautiful valley also surrounded by snowy peaks. Words really can’t do the view justice, it was incredible and well worth every ounce of energy and sweat that it took to get to the top.
It was getting late in the day, and we wanted to make sure we had enough time to get back to the trailhead safely, so we decided to skip climbing the last few feet up the stairs to the actual Devil’s Causeway. It sounds like most people do the hike as an in and out, but there is also 10 mile loop that takes hikers along the ridge of the mountain, and that looks incredible! Someday when our kids are older, we’ll come back here and do that hike!
Once we savored the view, took a few pictures (and got cell phone service for the first time that day), we headed down to the trail head. The last part that we had just come up was a little tricky on the way down, some parts were covered in snow and were a little steep, but the rest of the way was a quick hike down.
My husband tracked our hike and the trail we did was about 5.5 miles long, and it took us four hours. It’s not one that we could take our six and three year old on, but if you’ve got good hikers I would guess 8+ would love this hike. And we will definitely be back with our kids when they’re older to do the full 10 mile loop!
