Great hike! We ended up starting at Barr Trail, detoured up the Manitou Incline where it intersects (honestly, just to see what it was like and if we could make it up the stairs) and then followed the trail the rest of the way. I have to say, everyone on the incline were super encouraging and since it was the 4th of July, there were people doing the 4 ups and downs on the incline. Very impressive but I'm definitely not ready for that type of challenge yet! We went from the Manitou Incline, which was very busy with lots of people to the last part of the hike with zero other human encounters until we met back up with Barr Trail on the down. We enjoyed learning about the Experimental Forest — never knew that existed until we came across it. Amazing views for most of the hike — up and down!