Comanche National Grassland
When: May 2025
Trip Length: 2 days
Distance Covered: 14mi
Trail type: Loop
Permit: None
Just across the Oklahoma border in Southeast Colorado lies the hidden gem of Picture Canyon in Comanche National Grassland. The canyon is named for its native rock art carved into the vast sandstone walls. While the rock art is only a few minute hike from the picnic area, the grassland has a great trail system traversing numerous canyons. There are 3 trails accessible from the picnic area: the Arch Rock, Homestead, and Outlaw trails, which can be combined to form a ~14 mile loop which we backpacked over the span of 2 days while visiting the area.
We started our hike from the Picture Canyon Picnic Area around 11:30am and set off on the Arch Rock Trail southbound, hiking the loop clockwise. The first stretch of trail here is straightforward and well-marked to the canyon walls with a few pieces of Native American rock art. Apparently there’s a cave around here full of more rock art that isn’t accessible to the public (gated off) without a tour, Crack Cave, although we didn’t look for it. Near the spur trail that leads to the canyon walls, we came to the first natural spring. There are several small springs along the route- packing in water not necessary.
There’s a ton of modern graffiti near the rock art on the sandstone canyon walls, luckily people have (mostly) avoided disturbing the native art. There might be more native art in this area but we were only able to spot two pieces- a person and a horse. We spent some time here checking out the art & graffiti, hanging out in the shade of some larger trees, and climbing up the wall a few feet to a good sized cave. After we had our fill here we continued along the walls as the map showed a loop that would take us back to the Arch Rock Trail, although the trail became more and more overgrown until we decided it was impassible and backtracked to the main trail.
Past the “gallery” of Picture Canyon, the trail was much less traveled; for the majority of the trip we relied heavily on the various trail markers, which are plentiful along the loop. Keep an eye out for bundles of rock in wire, primitive wooden posts, fiberglass trail markers, and cairns. We started seeing what looked like grapes growing on the trail, which we later found out were ground plums. The trail wound through a small, tree lined valley where we startled a barn owl when it landed in a tree in front of us, immediately taking off when it noticed us on the trail below.
Following the valley the trail starts to climb out of the canyon, winding alongside and overtop the rocky pillars and slabs. At the top, we took a minute to look back at the vast, quiet landscape before continuing along the grassy trail. After crossing a service road the trail branched into two- a horse trail that took a gentler slope into the canyon and a foot trail that descended over rocks straight into the canyon, which we ended up following.
There were a few pools of water on our decent into the canyon before we came to a stream crossing where the horse trail met back up with the hiking trail. By taking the hiking trail rather than the horse trail here, we bypassed the most notable rock formation along the entire loop- a natural arch named “Wisdom Tooth”. We hiked back along the horse trail a few minutes to the arch for a snack break.
After checking out the arch we continued back to the trail junction and followed the stream for a bit before the trail overlapped a service road for a mile or so. Here the trail gets so close to the state line that you can see the fence marking the boundary of the grassland and into Oklahoma. Along the entire loop we passed by several old stone home sites, the one we came to here at the southern most point of the loop was the most intact. A fence with an unlocked gate keeps grazing cattle from disturbing the site and there’s a stone fire ring in front of the house making this a great campsite option with a spring just a few hundred feet farther down the trail. We stopped here and took a snack break while we checked out the homesite.
As we were leaving the stone house we were surprised to see a pickup truck driving down the service road we had just been hiking on- the first people we had seen all day. A few turkey hunters dressed in camo parked at the old home and started hiking a short distance down the trail in the same direction we were heading until they peeled off the trail and up to Cave Spring. The trail beyond the homesite follows a stream with enough flow that we eventually got to a point where we had to figure out how to cross the marshy area it drained into without getting our feet wet. We were able to cross and began our gradual climb up out of the valley, passing the remains of another stone structure along the way, and took another short break in the shade of a small tree.
As we approached the next service road, we came across a large heard of cattle surrounding a livestock tank at the junction of the Homestead and Outlaw trails. All eyes were on us as we continued along the trail amid the chorus of mooing from the herd, which scattered the closer we got. We spent the better part of a half-hour watching the bulls follow each other around and jump up on cows before we took a left and followed the service road connecting to the Outlaw Trail, parting a sea of cows as we hiked. We followed the road here for a bit too long before we realized we had missed the Outlaw Trail and backtracked a bit until we were able to join it from another service road.
The Outlaw Trail was definitely the least trafficked trail of the three. There is no trail to follow in the beginning but it’s marked well enough with wooden posts that we never needed to check the map and just hiked from one post to another. Once the trail drops back into a canyon it follows a rough service road for its entirety until you’re back on the Homestead Trail. We hiked along the service road for a few more miles as it slowly rose and descended in and out of canyons, spotting a few pronghorn in the distance as we went. After another decent we came to a small pond and livestock water tank where we decided to set up camp for the night.
After camp was set, we prepared our simple dinner of Raman noodles mixed with instant potatoes and a packet of pre-cooked chicken (Ramen bomb). I set up our filter with water from the livestock tank (much cleaner than the pond) and we watched the sun set over the plains. Lia and I retreated to the tent for a bit while Carson made the hike back up the canyon to snag a bar of cell service. The stars were amazing and we ended up venturing back outside and sitting in chairs wrapped up in our sleeping bags, at one point catching three shooting stars a few seconds apart.
We were up early with the sunrise and ate our breakfast I had prepared the day before- vanilla granola, dried blueberries, and powdered milk in a ziplock bag. Sometime in the night, something had chewed up the handles and straps on our trekking poles we had left outside. Once camp was packed up we continued with only a few miles to go on the loop. Our trail connected back to the Homestead Trail and we were back to hiking post-to-post, spotting a few more pronghorn and some unique rock formations along the way. The trail crosses a few more service roads, one of which we saw another pickup driving down. Once the loop rejoins the Arch Rock Trail, the tread is much more obvious and easy to follow. We came to another descent into a canyon and could see the well-maintained gravel road leading to the picnic area ahead- our hike was nearing the end. Following along on the trail next to the road had us back to the parking lot in a few minutes.
Overall, I really enjoyed this hike! The contrast of canyons and vast grassland was beautiful to transition through. The trails were well-marked dispite being lightly tread and we never had any thick underbrush to fight our way through. Water was abundant in all of the springs we passed by. We didn’t see a single other hiker; it felt like we had the entire place to ourselves. This felt like a great time of year to hike this trail as the temperature was moderate and wildflowers were blooming all over. It was also great having Carson along with us for the night. If I did this trail again in the future, I’d worry less about water- I packed in 8 litres myself. The homestead site would make a great campsite if doing the loop counter-clockwise, so I’d probably try that next time and stay there. I definitely recommend this hike to those seeking solitude and looking for a way to experience the Comanche National Grassland.
| Gear List Backpack: Osprey Atmos AG 50L Men’s Backpacking Backpack Tent: NEMO Equipment Aurora Backpacking Tent & Footprint Sleeping Pad: Sea to Summit Ether Light XT Extra-Thick Insulated Sleeping Pad Sleeping Bag: Sea to Summit Boab Synthetic Sleeping Bag Pillow: REI Campwell Camp Pillow Trekking Poles: Cascade Mountain Tech Lightweight Aluminum Trekking Poles Chair: NEMO Equipment Moonlite Reclining Camp Chair Water Filter: Sawyer Mini Water Filter Bag: Cnoc 2l Water Container Headlamp: Paria Outdoor Comet Rechargeable Headlamp Stove: MSR Pocketrocket 2 Cooking Pot: Sea to Summit Frontier Ultralight Camping Cooking Pot Trowel: Sea to Summit Collapsible Pocket Trowel First Aid Kit: NOLS Med Kit 4.0 GPS Watch: Garmin Instinct 2 Solar Camera: Google Pixel 6a *Affiliate links |
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