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Colorado Hikes: Chair Rocks
Have you ever walked along a trail mere minutes before a car went flying off the road and landed on said trail, right where you’d just walked? No? Neither had I… until this hike. My friend and I set out early one Saturday morning, the landscape beautifully dusted with snow from an overnight storm. The… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Loch Lomond
Are you singing the Loch Lomond song in your head now? Me too. In fact, it was stuck in my head the rest of the day after doing this hike. It’s in my head again now as I’m writing this. But despite the Scottish origin of the song, today’s hike is not located in Scotland.… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Shelf Lake
My Colorado readers can verify this: no matter where you are in the state, there’s always that one person who somehow manages to make it up a terribly rough dirt road in their low clearance car. Trailhead parking lots will inevitably be filled with trucks and SUVs… and a Toyota sedan. The very first thing… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Heart Lake
Summer hiking season was abruptly and heartbreakingly interrupted late last year, thanks to four large, rapidly spreading wildfires that prompted many closures and blanketed Colorado with thick smoke. Just as firefighters began to make significant progress, the west coast caught fire and the smoke from those states was blown all the way to Colorado and… Continue reading
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Colorado Summits: Lily Mountain
Due to the pandemic, entrance into Rocky Mountain National Park was a little more complicated in 2020. In addition to a fee or pass, one needed to reserve a timed entry permit. This allowed the park to reduce the number of visitors and spread them evenly throughout the day to better facilitate social distancing. Plenty… Continue reading
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Colorado 13er #3: Mount Audubon
The day began in a fairly typical fashion when it comes to hiking in Colorado: Mount Audubon is a 13er located in the Indian Peaks Wilderness of Colorado. To reach the trailhead, one must enter through the gates of Brainard Lake Recreation Area, which is (a) gorgeous, (b) exceptionally popular and crowded, and (c) a… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Beartracks Lake
Even as we consistently check hikes off our to-do list, it never seems to get any shorter. And yes, we’re extremely fortunate to have so many options to choose from. I’m definitely not complaining. But it can also sometimes be overwhelming to decide which trail to tackle each weekend. Case in point: this hike. Hiking… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Chicago Lakes
I think most lists of “best hikes near Denver” include Chicago Lakes. It’s not an easy hike – in terms of length or elevation gain – but it’s certainly worth the effort. Which also makes it extremely popular. We arrived at 6:30am on a Saturday morning to find the ample parking lot already approaching full.… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Hell’s Hole
When we told my brother-in-law we were planning to hike to Hell’s Hole the next morning, he immediately asked if this meant we would be spending the day exploring the devil’s butt crack. (Spoiler alert: we would not.) Your guess is as good as mine for where the name Hell’s Hole came from. I tried… Continue reading
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Colorado Hikes: Kenosha Pass
For us, the new 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 hike was breaking in our brand new snowshoes!… Continue reading
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Colorado Summits: Spruce Mountain
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 Colorado. This wasn’t the first time I’d ever moved to a new state. But this time, my job didn’t start for a couple months, and I realized I needed to… Continue reading
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Summiting our Second Colorado 13er: Mount Sniktau
I must admit, within about two minutes of beginning our hike up Mount Sniktau I was regretting our decision. I know summiting 13ers and 14ers requires some substantial climbing, but this hike gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘elevation gain.’ The trail basically goes straight up the mountain, gaining 1000 vertical feet (305… Continue reading
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Colorado Destinations: Manitou Cliff Dwellings
This past winter began fairly mildly, but by March – right about the time I was ready for winter to end – the snow arrived with a vengeance and lingered for nearly 3 more months. The final snow storm arrived 3 days before Memorial Weekend, throwing a wrench into everyone’s plans and thwarting efforts to… Continue reading
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Summiting our First Colorado 13er – Mount Flora
Because of the risk of altitude sickness at such high elevations, we were very careful with our hiking selections during our first summer in Colorado. We worked our way up to almost 12,000 feet (3650 m) over the first few weekends before deciding we felt acclimated enough to attempt a summit hike without getting sick.… Continue reading