On a mild winter day, I hiked the outside loop route on the Barnes Trails.    From the Gardiner Road trailhead, the lower trails were wet but not yet muddy.    Darker clouds swirled around the hills above the sagebrush grasslands for the first 2 km.  

I hiked a counter-clockwise loop going past Killdeer Pond on the west side of the trail system.  

As the route wound across the southern forested slopes, the trail climbed with several route choices.    I took the right fork each time, staying on the outside trails.      A few images from the hike are shared here.    Click an image for a lightbox view and a caption.

Barnes Trails - looking north

ponderosa snag

Killdeer Pond

Trail #2

fog in the valley below

coming down at the end of the hike

Fences border the south and southeast side of the trails, but there is good trail signage turning hikers in the right direction.   This hike was about 9 km

We will be back to hike the Barnes Trails in the spring…