On Walkabout On: Mt. Cutler Trail, Colorado

Basic Trail Information

• Name: Mt. Cutler Trail
• Where: Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Distance: 3.0 miles round trip
• Difficulty: easy to medium
• Time: 1.5 hour round-trip
• More Info: Colorado Springs Trails

GPS Map & Elevation:

Here is a 3D fly over of the route:

Narrative

Colorado Springs is surrounded by a number of trails that provide some nice views of the area.  For anyone looking to gets some great views of the city with minimal effort then I highly recommend checking out Mt. Cutler Trail.  Mt. Cutler is a small mountain just north of the much larger Cheyenne Mountain that has an easy hiking trail to its summit that provides sweeping views of Colorado Springs.  The trailhead is located off of North Cheyenne Canyon Road which is located in the southwestern portion of the city near Cheyenne Mountain:

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Along this road the trailhead marker is easily spotted:

As I started my hike the caution signs on the trailhead marker became very relevant because there was some very slippery ice covering the trail:

The lower reaches of the trail was covered with ice in isolated areas where little sunshine was able to penetrate the tree canopy:

As long as I was careful while walking over the ice I had no issues.  Eventually the trees thinned out a bit and the trail became ice free:

Here is the one bridge I crossed over going up the trail:

North Cheyenne Canyon is filled with incredible granite rock outcroppings and here is an example of a really small one that can be seen on the side of the trail:

I eventually came to a clearing along the trail that provided a nice view at the mountain across North Cheyenne Canyon from Mt. Cutler:

Here was the view from the clearing looking towards Colorado Springs and the opening to the canyon:

As I ascended further up the trail I came to another viewpoint that offered some incredible views of the mountains to the west of Mt. Cutler:

Down below I could see the famous Seven Falls that was still frozen over with ice:

Besides seeing the frozen Seven Falls I also spotted this large frozen waterfall looking south towards Cheyenne Mountain:

I don’t know the name of this waterfall so I am going to have to research and figure out what it is called.  I will also need to research and see if there is a hiking trail to the waterfall because it would be cool to check out once the ice thaws:

Here is a picture of a tree at another viewpoint near the summit of Mt. Cutler:

I eventually reached the rounded summit of Mt. Cutler at 7,257 feet:

The summit is rounded and wooded so I had to walk around to find various viewpoints to take pictures from.  Here was the view from the summit looking towards the northwest at 12367 ft (3769 m)  Mt. Almagre:

Here is a closer look at the mountain that neighbors Pikes Peak which can’t be seen from Mt. Cutler:

Pikes Peak is not visible from the summit because of the high mountains across from Mt. Cutler that block the view:

Down below me I could see North Cheyenne Canyon Road that I used to drive to the trailhead:

Here is the view I had of Colorado Springs:

As I walked around the summit I spotted this rock outcropping that spurs off from Mt. Cutler:

I figured since this rocky spur stuck out from the mountain and was not wooded that it would have better views.  The trail that leads over to the rocky spur drops in elevation as it crosses over a saddle.  At the bottom of the saddle I noticed this large outcropping of marble rock:

After a short walk I eventually reached the top of the rocky spur:

As I expected the spur had much better views.  Here is view from rocky spur towards the rounded summit of Mt. Cutler:

Here is the view looking southeast where the Broadmoor Hotel could easily be seen at the base of Cheyenne Mountain:

The Broadmoor has long been considered one of America’s best hotels which has caused it to be popular with celebrities, businessmen, and government officials as well as serving as the setting for a few movies over the years:

Here is the view looking east towards downtown Colorado Springs:

Here is a close up photograph of downtown:

Overall, Colorado Springs really is a really beautiful city, but at times I wonder about some of the eye sores around the city such as who’s idea was it to put a big power plant right next to the downtown area of the city?

Here is the view looking north towards the Garden of the Gods:

Here is a close up view of the Garden of the Gods:

I have visited Seven Falls before but from up on Mt. Cutler I really got to appreciated how spectacular South Cheyenne Canyon where the falls are located is:

Here is the view looking towards the high peaks to the west of Mt. Cutler:

Conclusion

After checking out the views it was a quick walk back down the trail to the parking lot.  All in all I spent about 1.5 hours hiking the 3 round trip miles along with the time I spent hanging out on the top of Mt. Cutler.  It was a nice morning time walk that allowed me to take some nice photos of the region.  Considering the minimal effort it took to reach the summit of Mt. Cutler the views offered from the summit are accessible to most people.  Basically anyone of moderate fitness should have no problems reaching the top of Mt. Cutler, just make sure to be careful of the ice during cold weather.