Mt. Bierstadt

I've been slacking lately on the blog posts so I'm a tad behind on the hikes that we've done. But I'm determined to get one of them out of the way today! Last weekend, 10/22/16, Ali and I decided to take advantage of Colorado's super warm weather for late October and hike our first 14ker. Since it's getting pretty chilling deeper into the mountains, we decided to shoot for Mount Bierstadt, which is one of the more easily accessible 14kers from Denver. It's a little over an hour from the west side of Denver and is 100% paved roads which is a nice change from some of the other 4x4 trails you have to go on to get to the trail heads.

Even though it was warm in Denver, it was a brisk 32 when we started our hike at around 7:30 am. Here is a picture from the parking lot with a wonderful Microsoft Paint graphic of where we are headed. According to AllTrails.com, it's 7.3 miles down and back with 2,767 feet elevation gain.

The first 30 - 40 minutes are fairly low key. It's a lot of walking through the bushes and past a little lake. There is a pretty little creek that you have to cross. On a side note, in the morning it's a tad icy and it may not be very smart if you decide to jump on a boulder in the middle of the stream. :( I didn't fall in the water but I did bite it pretty good and got some nice bruises on my knees for the next few days which made the rest of the hike an absolute blast! Anyway, beyond that you start your gradual climb upwards. I thought the picture below was pretty cool as the sun was coming up on the other side of the mountain and there was a clear dividing line of sun and shade.

As we got higher and higher it got pretty windy. I'd say there were gusts of around 30 mph which made it pretty chilly on your hands and face. However the views were definitely worth it. The picture below is about 50 feet from the summit looking on the other side of the mountain.

Last and definitely not least, the top of the mountain.Even though the bottom portion of the trail was fairly moderate with just winding uphill slopes, the last .5 miles or so had some class 3 scrambling involved which was a fun change of pace after a while.

Overall I really enjoyed the hike. It didn't have the trees/streams that a lot of other hikes do, but when you do 14kers and only have an elevation gain around 2,700, you basically start out above the tree level. I think it's a great hike first time 14kers as you can pace yourself and get used to the lack of oxygen.