Greer Road South
Plain and simple, Greer Road is a mess. It is forest service road 154 with a few fun spurs. But there is private property right in the middle of it that breaks it into three trails that don't connect to each other. We hoped that the southern two sections would connect because the distance between them on the Motor Vehicle Use Map is small enough to be a mistake, but it wasn't to be. The two trails are separated by about 550 feet of private property, making it a challenge to do the two halves of Greer Road South.
We did Ballard Road out to the western half first. After pulling a car out of a muddy ditch we ended up following Elk Creek along the rocks. What a fun surprise -- rocks! They started out fun enough, but the Rock Garden was the best. The climb was bumpy, and the mud and water was making things festive. We all enjoyed climbing up the fun stuff. It was great for Jerry who was testing out his new Jeep. It performed perfectly.
When we got to the top we stopped to enjoy the solitude and a bit of open space. Julie broke out an RC Jeep and had fun driving it around the RC-sized Rock Garden. It was a good time for snacks and checking out Jerry's new Jeep, so we hung out for a while.
The Rock Garden was almost as fun on the way down, and it gave us a chance to get some good pictures. Everyone got nice and flexy.
We worked our way almost back to Pennock Pass where we turned to do the eastern section of Greer Road South. Julie and Jerry left us at this point. The other section was completely different, with smooth parts and open meadows. It was looking promising until we got to a huge gate that was very fortified and padlocked. The trail continued on the other side, but we would not be heading that way. You could see that there was a fence along it on the other side, so people were allowed through at some point. What a bummer! We found it hard to believe that a private party could close 550 feet of a public and well-known trail, but it turns out the owners family once contained the mayor of Fort Collins so anything is possible.
We had our fingers crossed, thinking we might be able to cross through to the northern section of Greer Road, but in the end we ran out of time because the trails didn't connect. Monica and Roger drove by the northern trail but we had to skip it. We'll check it out another day. Next time, we'll just do the rocky climb to the top.
