Abyss Trail to Helms Lake

For this weekend's hike we continued to stalk the Fall colors before it's too late. After some Googling, we decided on the Abyss Trail head. This trail head is located on the Guanella Pass, not too far past Georgetown. To get there we actually took the long way in and it was a very pretty drive through the pass. 

The trail itself was ~11.6 miles with a 2,241 ft. elevation gain. Even though it's a decent elevation gain, there are very few steep sections, so it's a moderate hike from that perspective.

The first 2 miles or so is dense pine trees. There isn't much to see for this part but it's still kind of cool to see all of the trees and feel like you're in a forest. After the 2 mile marker, you then cross a little river and open up into a very pretty meadow. There were still quite a few Aspen trees changing colors but we were a week behind for prime foliage.

As you go through the valley you cross the creek a few more times and have pretty views of the water, trees, and surrounding mountains. It was a very peaceful hike both from the view and gradual incline perspective.

As you reach the bottom of the mountains, it opens up a little more and you get a glimpse of Helms Lake. Below is a picture of that. It was pretty but nothing amazing compared to so many other mountain lakes.

On our way back down, we got lucky and saw ~20 mountain goats hopping around on the side of the mountain. This was only about 1 mile or so from Helms Lake. It was really fun watching them move around but unfortunately they blended in to the background too much for a good picture.

Since we started fairly early in the morning we were shaded for a lot of the hike and the pictures weren't as bright. Below are a few more pictures headed back to the trail head.

All-in-all, I would recommend this hike. It has a good variety of scenery and wasn't too intense where you could easily enjoy the hike. I doubt it would be as nice if the trees weren't turning. I would also highly recommend going early as it becomes a mad house later during the day. We got the trail around 7:30 and left at 12:30. There were a handful of cars when we got there but it was primarily overnight campers. When we got back, cars were lined up for over a mile on the road.

Gore Creek Trail to Buffalo Pass

It's finally starting to feel like Fall in the mountains here in CO, which also means the trees are starting to turn. For this week's hike, Ali and I headed to Gore Creek Trail which is a few minutes from East Vail.  According to AllTrails, it's around 12.8 miles with a 3,172 feet vertical. After doing a little more roaming around/taking the wrong path one time, we were right at 14 miles with a 3,294 vertical.

From the trail head, you start going uphill pretty fast. For the first 10 minutes or so you hear some interstate noise but that fades out quickly and you are encompassed by Aspen trees. Below are a few pictures after the initial climb with the sun rising.

From there, the trail has some ups and downs, but overall it's a fairly gradual climb for the most part with a few sections being more intense than others. It's a very pretty hike since you follow the Gore Creek the majority of the time and you get views water, forest, and mountain peeks in both directions.

The last .75 mile or so is pretty brutal after hiking 6 miles to get there. It's a steady climb of ~900 feet until you get to the top of Buffalo Pass. From the top of the pass you can see Silverthorne on the other side as well as the valley you just hiked through from East Vail. As you can see from the picture below, Ali was a tad tired.

Since the sun was in our eyes the majority of the hike there, I took a few more pictures coming back to show the creek and a view of East Vail.

Overall I would highly recommend this hike. It's definitely on the more on the strenuous side due to the elevation gain and length, but the variety of views that it provided was well worth it.