763. Ghost of Forgotten Valley
Lovely hike to the site of an old Swedish farmstead near Blackhawk, CO

To find this little "travelin' light” ghost lurking near a scenic pond in the foothills of central CO, you must first get whatever sort of pass you can (free CO Statehood day, free Veterans Day, $7 regular day use, etc.) from the visitor center of a CO state park whose name may remind you of San Francisco's famous bridge combined with an Arizona national park that is very grand. From there, proceed up the road right about 2.5 miles to one of the small parking lots on the left and find a bridge over the creek to the start of the backwards Orrub trail.

Now, to quote from our sketchy notes from the "100 Hikes in CO” book: 2.6 miles round trip; 8,000'- 8'200'; easy; climb, level, climb to junction at .7m; left with the mountain lions; straight at next junction another .5m, passing "city lights” on left, following old road to stock pond on left with brown farm structures in distance. Nearby find an info sign explaining the four generation Swedish history of the farm. While reading it, note that anyone who might happen to be sitting on the porch swings of the farm house straight ahead across the field path could easily see you, so here's what we recommend:

Bend down here at the sign as if to tie your right shoe. You will be looking for a small ghost on the back of a squarish 2” gray stone beneath a couple of slightly larger stones on the south side of the north pole (not under the decoy rock on the north side of the south pole!) Now head on over to the shady porch swings to make some ghostly creaking sounds yourself, and then, after a nice relaxing swing, return the little ghost to its home by the sign when no one else is lurking about!

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