February is always a risky time of year to make partially-non-refundable reservations for anywhere in the Colorado Rockies. Weather can change in an instant, closing mountain passes and rendering travel downright dangerous. But our anniversary is in February, so we made the reservation and crossed our fingers and ended up getting pretty lucky. At the… Continue reading Colorado Destinations: Snow Mountain Ranch
The first time we did this hike, I hated it. In retrospect, I may have overreacted. It’s not my favorite hike in Rocky, but it’s still pretty nice. I’m sure the fact that I was asking my tired legs – which had hiked 10 miles (16 km) the day before – to climb a bunch… Continue reading Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Bierstadt Lake
The first time I heard someone mention “the troll” I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about, but a little research quickly uncovered the mystery of this unusual hiking destination. This is one of those silly and cliché and popular bucket list items, but I still feel like it was worth it.
Isak Heartstone is a giant troll built by Danish artist Thomas Dambo in 2018 for a Breckenridge art festival. He was then partially rebuilt and relocated (due to his popularity, he needed a new home) in summer 2019. Dambo specializes in making sculptures out of materials that would otherwise be discarded; there are many wooden trolls, as well as other sculptures, in various locations around the world.
Welcome to the first post of our 2020 adventures! For us, the decade began with a winter hike along the Colorado Trail at Kenosha Pass. And while both Kenosha Pass and a hike on the Colorado Trail were things I’d been wanting to check off the list for a while, the biggest excitement of this… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Kenosha Pass
How in the world does one meet people and make friends as an adult? It’s a question I grappled with when we first arrived in Denver. This wasn’t the first time I’d ever moved to a new state; but the big difference between previous moves and this one is that I was moving for school,… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Spruce Mountain
There’s nothing more Colorado than hiking through beautiful fall colors with hundreds of other people and then drinking some beer in the backcountry. Well, okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. To truly do it Colorado style, you’d have to climb to the top of a 14er before drinking the beer. But they like to make… Continue reading Beer + hiking + fall colors: Upslope Backcountry Taproom 2019
I feel very fortunate to be a member of the Colorado branch of Women Who Hike, as it’s the most active one. There are always people looking for hiking buddies and, because there are multiple ambassadors, hosted group hikes occur very frequently. I’ve been lucky enough to secure spots in a few of these hikes,… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Helms Lake
Fall arrived late to Colorado in 2019, thanks to the fact that winter persisted in the mountains until early July. Typically, fall colors peak in the mountains in mid-September, but this year they didn’t arrive until the end of the month. And then it promptly snowed all over everything, putting an abrupt end to the… Continue reading Colorado Day Hikes: Square Top Lakes
If you read the title of this post and assumed the “fifty lakes” is an exaggeration, let me begin by assuring you that it's not. If anything, it’s an underestimation. At one point, from where I was standing on the Medicine Bow Peak trail, I could see 32 lakes! At an elevation of 12,013 feet… Continue reading Fifty Lakes and a 12,000 Foot Summit – Snowy Range Scenic Byway, Wyoming
Obtaining a backcountry permit for Rocky requires similar levels of intensity as many Colorado hiking feats, including summiting a 14er or finding parking at a trailhead or snagging a front country campsite anywhere during the summer. Permits become available each year on March 1 at 8:00am. So on March 1, 2019 at 7:59am, I was… Continue reading Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Thunder Lake
