Turn right and continue straight on the paved road to Turquoise Lake. As you reach the lake, continue past the dam. You'll climb two separate hills that afford wonderful overlooks of the lake before coming to Forest Rd. 105, a dirt road bearing to the left. Across the road is the trailhead and a sign describing the Colorado Midland Railroad.
Dogs can be off leash.
This hike will let your dog sniff around one of the ghost towns for which Colorado is renowned. Many of these former towns have some connection to the state's fabled mining past. This one does, too, but in a roundabout way. Douglass City was a wild and woolly construction camp built high above Turquoise Lake and Leadville to house workers building the Hagerman Tunnel. The tunnel was built in 1888 and used until 1897 as a route for the Colorado Midland Railroad between the silver mines of Aspen and the smelters of Leadville.