On Friday after a full day of gorging, Ali and I headed over to Hanging Lakes. We'd obviously heard a lot about how pretty it is and were definitely looking forward to trying it out. We started the hike around 9:00 am and it was a chilly 25 or so degrees starting out. The first part of the hike is very pretty as you walk past the Colorado River but doesn't get your blood to flowing like we needed it to that morning. That is quickly remedied as you hit the actual trail head and start your way upwards.
The uphill portion is fairly moderate and there are quite a few picture taking moments as you head uphill. As I said before, I'm a huge fan of water so having a little creek next to us the entire time was very nice. This hike was also quite a bit different from others that we've done. You are basically down in a valley the entire time so it's a different perspective than climbing up a mountain.
Since we were the only ones stupid enough to be hiking that early in the cold, we were awarded as being the only people at Hanging Lakes when we got there. It's absolutely beautiful as far as how clear the water is and the mountains/snow in the background. The pictures below definitely don't do it justice.
After walking around the lake, we then headed up to Spouting Rock. It was only about a 3 - 5 min hike up the left side of the lake and well worth it. It's pretty cool seeing a waterfall come out of a hole in the side of the mountain. You are also able to walk under it.
Overall I would highly recommend this hike. AllTrails says the hike is a 3.2 mile out and back with around a 1,214 feet elevation gain. I would say it's pretty easy overall as the uphill portion is fairly gradual in most places and there are plenty of spots to take a break by the water if you need to. The only downfall for us was that there was quite a bit of snow/ice on the trail which made coming downhill pretty slow and interesting to say the least. I'd highly recommend packing some micro spikes if there is any doubt of snow/ice.
After we got done with Hanging Lakes, we then moved onto Jess Weaver Trail. This is a 5.4 mile high with around a 1,730 feet elevation gain. As you approach the trail head, it's kind of weird as you are walking right past someone's drive way so you feel like you are in their yard but you are not. Just continue to head up the gravel road until you hit the actual trail.
This hike was pretty nice overall as yet again, you are in a valley and you have water along side of you the entire time. However after the first mile or so, the scenery gets pretty repetitive and even though there is a bridge with some nice little waterfalls towards the end, it wasn't anything special.
The last "hike" we did was Rifle Falls in Rifle Falls State Park. It's definitely more of a leisurely walk around to see some pretty waterfalls and also quite a few caves which were cool. Getting to the waterfalls from the parking lot is probably .1 miles but you can stretch the hike into almost 1 mile if you walk all around the waterfalls, into the caves, etc. It's a nice low key place to take your family and maybe grill out.
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