Escaping The Nutshell

From the parking area of Button Rock Preserve we headed up the gated gravel road to the unmarked Lions Den Trail about 0.6 miles up the road on the left. We hiked up the Lions Den Trail for about a half mile to the rock climbing area, where we turned south, often following faint trails and roads for about another mile, then southwest through trackless forest for an additional mile, and finally met up with a trail below the summit.

You can see the entire route with the GPS tracks. Our GPS lost power before the hike was finished, so we penciled in the remaining part of the loop, which was traversed in a clockwise direction.

The total distance from the parking area to the Coffintop summit was about 3.7 miles. Elevation gain was about 2000 feet from parking at 6000, to the summit at 8000 feet. We descended a different way, heading west from a point just north of the summit, then north through trackless forest and faint trails, before meeting up with the Sleepy Lion Trail which got us back to the gravel road.