What's a "Hole in the Wall" you might ask. I became acquainted with this trail last year when Jerry and I stopped by after a run in the Garden and do a quick look over. I wanted to come back to explore more of the area but I never found the time. So this last month, I decided to spend some time here and have been back 3 times now. The more time I spend, the more I discover.

The area is a combination of secluded property between the old Queens Quarry and the Flying W Ranch property. From my studies, it looks like 22 acres of it is part of a small ranch that was bought a number of years back and used to build a private school on the front side. This is now a church. The far west area is part of the Pike National Forest.

Since it is close to where I live and does not get a lot of traffic, I find it a great place to get away with the dog and admire the scenery. The web page at http://farruner.com/courses/CSTRholeinwall.html has detailed information about the trails so check it out.

A lot of the area is accessible on a dirt roadway that forms a large "C" shape. During my first trip around the area, I discovered some small single tracks that cross between the the roadways and offer the option of making the "C" into a loop course. There is a small rock passageway and an impressive rock wall on the single track trails that are not obvious until you wander into them.

The north end of the area ends at the Flying W Ranch where there is fencing that I believe is still used for range land and cattle. I have not explored that area because of the fencing and respect for the implied private property issues.

There is an old roadway that climbs up from where the cattle guard and fencing starts. I did not follow it too far yet but from my looking at google earth, it looks like this could lead up to the top of the peaks in that area. From there, there could be some interesting access to the areas behind the front range. When I have a long day available, I plan to explore this more fully.

Because of the private land involve here, I caution everyone to be respectful of the property. If you follow the dirt road along the higher part of the "C", I think you would be into the National Forest land but the lower trails might be part of Flying W or the church property.

Good MTB area and Hiking area, lot of uphill outbound for runners similar to parts of the Barr trail.