June 2021
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Colorado Hikes: St. Mary’s Glacier
Most lists of “best hikes near Denver” include St. Mary’s Glacier. And with good reason. For a relatively short drive and 1.8 miles (2.9 km) of hiking, you can see a pretty subalpine lake, bristlecone pines, and stand on a glacier. Well… sort of. As it turns out, St. Mary’s Glacier isn’t actually a glacier.… Continue reading
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On Top of Nebraska: Panorama Point
The highest point in Nebraska, Panorama Point, is located just across the border from both Colorado and Wyoming in the middle of basically nowhere. The elevation at Panorama Point is 5424 feet (1653 m) – higher than I would have expected for a plains state. But one thing differentiates this high point from most of… Continue reading
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A day trip to Pawnee National Grassland
The lands of northeastern Colorado have been inhabited for at least 12,000 years, originally by nomadic hunters. More recently, these lands were the home of the Arapaho and Cheyenne, who were forcibly removed in the 1880s to allow white settlers to establish homesteads and farm the land. As settlers soon learned, though, this shortgrass prairie… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Helms Lake (the winter version)
As I’ve spent more time in Colorado and gained more knowledge and confidence in my winter hiking abilities, I’ve begun to push myself harder. I’ve tackled longer and more challenging hikes, and been rewarded with gorgeous snow-covered views and relative solitude. But I’ve also established some limits on just how much I’m willing to challenge… Continue reading
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A terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day of skiing
Since moving to Colorado, we have managed to go cross-country skiing about once a year. I wish we could go more often, but we don’t have our own gear (yet). Fortunately, there’s a place not too far away that rents gear for a decent price, and there are some trails in the mountains that are… Continue reading
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A weekend in Twin Lakes, Colorado
The combination of living in Colorado and having a winter anniversary always makes it difficult to figure out how we’re going to celebrate. You just never know what the weather has in store, especially in the mountains. This year we actually had the opposite problem from what we expected: it was going to be too… Continue reading
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Colorado Summits: Greyrock Mountain
The wild fluctuations and extremes of mountain weather is something that can be hard to grasp, particularly for someone who hasn’t spent much time in them. Hell, I’ve spent most of my life living near and exploring the mountains, and I still underestimate them from time to time. Mountains do weird and intense things to… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Burning Bear Trail
The Guanella Pass area is moose territory. So when we headed up Burning Bear Trail one January morning, adjacent to an expanse of willows, I was on the lookout. Just a few minutes up the trail we encountered a fellow hiker who informed us there were four of them just ahead in the willows. Despite… Continue reading
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Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Black Lake (the winter version)
Exactly one week after hiking to Sky Pond in the winter – my last hike of the year – I found myself back at Glacier Gorge trailhead, this time with a friend, for my first hike of the new year! We were fighting cold gusty winds as we readied ourselves to head up the other… Continue reading
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