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Start: Southeast corner of the Yucca and Mesa Trails parking area off Paseo Road. Ending trailhead is at north side of lot.

Distance: 4.0-mile loop

Hiking time: 2 to 3 hours

Difficulty: Easy

Elevation gain: Minimal

Trail surface: Singletrack dirt surface

Seasons: Year-round

Schedule: Open daily, dawn to dusk

Other trail users: Runners, mountain bikers

Canine compatibility: Leashed dogs only. Pick up your dog’s waste.

Land status: City of Colorado Springs park

Fees and permits: None. All city park rules must be obeyed.

Maps: USGS Pikeview; downloadable park trail map from Colorado Springs Parks website

Trail contact: Colorado Springs Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services, 1401 Recreation Way, Colorado Springs, CO 80905-1975; (719) 385-5940; www.springsgov.com

Finding the trailhead: From I-25 take the Fillmore Street exit (exit 145). Drive east on Fillmore Street, which becomes North Circle Drive beyond the Union Boulevard intersection, for 2.5 miles to Paseo Road. Take a left onto Paseo Road and drive 0.8 mile northwest past the Colorado Springs Country Club golf course. Drive through the gated park entrance on Paseo Road, drive to the top of a hill, and make a left turn toward Lazy Land and Ute Crest Picnic Area. Drive a short distance to a Y junction and go left to a parking area at the end of the road (GPS: 38.879944, -104.7724). The trailhead is at the southeast corner of the parking area. Palmer Park also has an entry road from Academy Boulevard on the east. To reach the trailhead from the east, turn west on Maizeland Road from Academy Boulevard and drive 2 blocks. Turn right on Paseo Road and enter Palmer Park. Follow Paseo to a right turn to the trailhead.

The Hike

Seventy-three-acre Palmer Park lies smack in the middle of Colorado Springs. This rock-rimmed natural area surrounded by city sprawl is an enclave of forest and grassland with grand vistas of Pikes Peak and the Front Range escarpment and offers over 25 miles of trails for a quick hiking getaway.

The park has a great variety of trails, including closed roads, constructed and maintained trails, and social trails. All the main trails are signed with posts at junctions with arrows indicating which way to go. The Yucca and Mesa Trails on top of the north bluff are very popular with walkers and dogs, while the better-maintained trails are used by mountain bikers and equestrians from Mark Reyner Stables on Paseo Road.

Palmer Park is composed of two flat-topped bluffs lined with rim-rock cliffs, crumbling sandstone buttresses, fanciful hoodoos, and toadstool-shaped rocks tucked among the pines like primitive sculptures. The feldspar-rich sandstone and conglomerate, called Dawson arkose by geologists, has a rough granular texture and a hardness that ranges from crumbling rock with the consistency of brown sugar to hard compact stone that forms cliff bands as high as 80 feet.

The high headlands at Palmer Park, locally part of a range of hills called Austin Bluffs, are an isolated remnant of a large rock formation deposited by ancient streams and rivers flowing from the Pikes Peak massif during the late Cretaceous period some 60 million years ago. Nearby Pulpit Rock is composed of the same sandstone.

The 4-mile Templeton Trail is a great hike that circumnavigates the north bluff in the park, threading across flat sandstone benches above canyons, passing through stands of sturdy ponderosa pine and dense thickets of Gambel oak, and providing great views across downtown Colorado Springs to the abrupt mountain front.

Beginning at the Yucca Flats / Templeton Trailhead, Templeton Trail is easy to hike, with minimal elevation gain and loss. The trail roughly follows the 6,500-foot contour around the bluff. While it can be hiked in either direction, it is described here for hiking clockwise since the views are better and the trail is easier to follow. The first mile of the trail is the busiest as it’s used by both hikers and mountain bikers. After rounding the southwest end of the bluff, the trail narrows and is usually deserted and quiet except for the din of traffic on Union Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway in the valley below. Remember to bring water in summer since none is available; nor are there restrooms. Both are, however, found at the Edna Mae Bennett Trailhead on Paseo Road.

The trailhead is located at the southeast corner of the cul-de-sac parking lot. It might be hard to spot, but head down the first trail left of some scrub oaks. The trail descends through yucca and stunted oaks and reaches a junction with a spur of the Yucca Trail. Go right at the signed post and follow the trail west, contouring across a hillside high above Paseo Road and a shallow canyon.

After 0.4 mile you reach an overlook on a broad sandstone bench and a great view west across the bluffs toward the mountains. The trail bends north here, swings around a rocky draw, and at 0.5 mile reaches a junction with the Edna Mae Bennett Nature Trail, which it follows north for another 0.4 mile. The Bennett Trail goes south from the junction to its trailhead on Paseo Road.

After hiking through pines and along the rim rock, the trail passes a junction with the Yucca Trail at 0.7 mile and then another junction with the Bennett Trail, which descends to the left, at 0.9 mile. Keep right on the marked Templeton Trail and clamber up a boulder staircase. The trail, passing through ponderosa pines, dips across the top of a draw and contours west to a compact rock outcropping with a couple of pinnacles and a small arch at 1 mile. This is a good spot to scramble up for rock photos.

The trail heads southwest, following the rim edge and passing two spur trails that go right to the bluff-top Mesa Trail. At 1.4 miles there is a flat rock ledge that offers great views south across the city, and at 1.5 miles is the junction with the southern terminus of Mesa Trail. From here the hike becomes wilder and less popular.

Follow the Templeton Trail to the southern edge of the bluff and a fine view of 14,115-foot Pikes Peak. Now the trail descends rocky slopes on the southern bluff slope, passing beneath tawny cliff bands and scrambling over rounded boulders. At 1.9 miles the trail reaches the southwestern corner of the bluff and boulder pile.

The hike turns north here and for the next half mile winds through a forest of ponderosa pine and scrub oak. Cliffs, some as high as 80 feet, loom above the trail. The cliff tops are studded with stubby pinnacles and magical hoodoos. A housing development and busy Union Boulevard are west below the trail.

At 2.5 miles is an unmarked trail junction at the northwest corner of the bluff. Go either right or left since they meet up 0.1 mile ahead. The left trail is more scenic, edging across steep north-facing slopes then scrambling up boulders to the next junction.

After 2.9 miles the trail bends slightly southeast above Lazy Land valley to the east and crosses bedrock to a viewpoint above a perfect 20-foot-high toadstool with a balanced rock summit. The trail goes west here, contouring above a wide draw. At 3.1 miles is the junction with the Lazy Land Trail, which descends east to a group picnic area. Continue straight and contour southeast around the draw, passing a couple junctions with spur trails that go right onto the mesa top to the Mesa and Yucca Trails.

The marked junction with Palmer Point Trail is reached at 3.5 miles. Go right, uphill, and in 0.4 mile you reach the Mesa Trail, an old closed road on the bluff top. Turn left here and hike another 0.1 mile to the trailhead on the north side of the parking area and the end of our Templeton foot adventure.

0.0	Trailhead on the southeast side of the parking area (GPS: 38.879841, -104.772265). Go south to a junction.
0.1	Junction of Templeton Trail and Yucca Trail. Go right at signed post.
0.4	Reach an overlook (GPS: 38.87848, -104.77572).
0.5	Junction with the Bennett Trail. Keep straight.
0.7	Junction with Yucca Trail spur. Keep straight.
0.8	Junction with Bennett Trail. Go right up stony trail (GPS: 38.88185, -104.77613).
0.9	Trail junction. Go left.
1.0	Arch and hoodoos (GPS: 38.88282, -104.77698).
1.2	Junction with the Mesa Trail.
1.4	Canyon Overlook (GPS: 38.88188, -104.77927).
1.5	Junction with Mesa Trail. Keep left.
1.7	Reach the south end of the bluff. Good views of Pikes Peak. Trail descends west below cliffs.
1.9	Trail reaches the southwest corner of the bluff and turns north along the western edge of the escarpment (GPS: 38.88110, -104.78448).
2.5	Trail junction (GPS: 38.88735, -104.77987). Go either left or right since the trails meet up 0.1 mile northeast.
2.6	Reach the northwest corner of the bluff. The trail bends east here and goes through pine woods above Austin Bluffs Parkway.
2.9	Trail bends south above the shallow Lazy Land valley to the east. After a few hundred feet, stop on the rim rock and admire a perfect 20-foot-high toadstool with a balanced rock summit (GPS: 38.88682, -104.77470).
3.1	Junction with the Lazy Land Trail. Continue west and contour around the head of a draw.
3.2	Junction with Mesa Trail. Keep straight on main trail.
3.4	Junction with Yucca Trail, which goes up left. Continue straight.
3.5	Junction with Palmer Point Trail (GPS: 38.88457, -104.77168). Go up right.
3.9	Reach the Yucca Trail, a wide closed road, and go left (south) toward the parking area.
4.0	End the hike at the north side of the parking lot (GPS: 38.8800, -104.77233).