On Walkabout At: St. Peter’s Dome Outside of Colorado Springs

Summary

• Name: St. Peter’s Dome Trail
• Where: Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Distance: 1.4 miles
• Difficulty: Easy if not climbing the rock dome (305 ft elevation gain)
• More Information: SummitPost.org

GPS Map & Elevation

Narrative

The weather last weekend was just stunning so I had to get out at least one day to go on a short walk. The walk I decided to try out was to hike up to the 9,690 foot St. Peter’s Dome outside of Colorado Springs. This is a short walk of just about a mile and a half and the trail is accessed off of the scenic Gold Camp Road via Old Stage Road. A drive up Old Stage Road and Gold Camp Road is always a treat because the scenery is just spectacular. Here is a view of Mt. Rosa and Stove Mountain from Old Stage Road:

By looking closely at the above picture the frozen St. Mary’s Falls can be seen:

The ice from this frozen waterfall is so visible that from all across Colorado Springs it can be seen next to Stove Mountain. Up ahead I could also see the rocky butte of St. Peter’s Dome:

The trailhead for St. Peter’s Dome is easy to find because there is a large parking area where Old Stage Road and Gold Camp Road meet. The parking area is a popular place for drivers to park at and take in views of Colorado Springs from:

The parking area also has some great views of Cheyenne Mountain as well:

From the trailhead the rocky butte of St. Peter’s Dome does not look nearly as impressive as when seen from other angles:

According to the trailhead sign St. Peter’s Dome is a short .7 mile walk.  This makes for an easy 1.4 mile round-trip hike with 305 feet of elevation gain.  The trail all the way to St. Peter’s Dome is in good shape:

Here is a panorama shot I took from the trail of Cheyenne Mountain.  Notice that Old Stage Road that I drove in on is visible to the right and below in the center the closed off portion of Gold Camp Road is visible:

Eventually the trail reaches the rock dome and here is where things get more challenging.  This is where hikers need to scramble a bit up the rocks:

The last section of rocks I decided not to climb because it looked to challenging for me to climb without gear:

So I decided just to sit down and take in the views from just below the dome’s summit:

The views were absolutely great with most of the Pikes Peak region visible from the dome.  If driving up Gold Camp Road it is definitely worth stopping and taking in this short hike.  Because even if you do not want to climb out the rocky dome the views from the trail are still outstanding and worth the short walk.