Mountain Lion Trail is a 6.8 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Golden, Colorado that features a river and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is best used from June until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
dogs on leash
birding
hiking
mountain biking
nature trips
snowshoeing
trail running
walking
horseback riding
river
views
wild flowers
wildlife
bugs
rocky
At the trail head parking lot, there is an outhouse and trash bins. You'll need a day pass for the park.
Hiked from the Mountain Lion trailhead, and first it's not on the map. The trailhead, and where I parked via the exact directions from this app is the Nott Creek entrance. Walked up to Quarry and back. Just didn't really do it for me. Probably won't be back
Did this loop with the extension to Windy Peak a few days ago. A great hike overall. Much of it follows a creak which is nice and the view from Windy Peak is AWESOME (adds an additional .5 of steep trail). My GPS showed the whole loop + Windy Peak as 8.3 miles with 1886ft of accent. Took us about 3hour 50mins and it became pretty difficult so don't take it lightly. Bring tons of water and some snacks.
Back to Mountain Lion after only two weeks. This time with the whole family in tow. This will always be one of our favorites. Going counter clockwise you will walk next to the stream most of the way. The uphill can be strenuous at times especially the last push to Windy Peak, but so worth it. We often shorten this hike by coming back from Windy Peak using Burro Trail and one of the service road. This makes for a 6 mile hike.
Great trail, great views, super easy to follow. Not difficult at all.
Well maintained routes and clearly marked trails. On the last stretch of trail near the creek I ran into a bull moose (see pic). I backed up a bit to give him space and wander off. After a couple minutes I went back around the bend where he had been. He had now turned around and was looking straight at me and as soon as we made eye contact he began to charge. Thankfully there was some space for me to hightail it out of there before I was stomped. Moose aren't the brightest animals, but they can be aggressive so be careful out there!
Couple more tips, as other reviews have mentioned: go counterclockwise and take the Windy Peak extension for lunch. Well worth it!