Hallet Peak

For this weekend's adventure, Ali and I headed up to Estes Park to hike Hallett Peak. Little did we know, it actually starts out at one of our favorite trail heads, Bear Lake. This trailhead is great for people of all fitness levels since the trails split off in a lot of different ways and you can do as little or as much as you want. For Hallet however, we went to the right side of Bear Lake Which doesn't have as many shorter trails.

According to AllTrails, this is about a 9.6 mile hike and a 3,280 foot elevation gain. While you start to feel the elevation a little at the top of the peak, it's not bad at all and there are no real steep sections other than the end. It's just a gradual uphill grind. So enough of that, let's get to the pictures!

As soon as you leave Beaver Lake, you are on an uphill stretch with quite a few trees on both sides of you. There isn't much of a few for a while but then as you get up higher, there are a few overlooks of various lakes below you. I really like the picture below since you can see all of the mountains and one lake up close and one in the distance.

After you get above 11,000 or so, your views change quite a bit from tress to more of an open mountain feeling. It got a little windy up here but it wasn't too bad. Here is another picture of the lake as you look down the mountain range. It also got my little marmot friend in the picture doing some sun bathing.

The next two pictures show the top of Hallet Peak. The trail itself is called Flattop Mtn. Trail and the section to the right is a fairly long flat section before you start your final uphill climb.

Then we got a few pics at the top which was around 12,713 feet.

Overall I really enjoyed the hike. It had some good views of both lakes and the mountains. It'd be a good hike to get you used to higher elevation without having very steep uphill climbs.

Arapaho Pass Trail (Caribou & Dorothy Lake)

For this weekend's hike we headed back to the Fourth of July Trailhead. This is a pretty popular trailhead outside of Nederland. Getting there only takes about 1.5 hours from Denver but the last 4 miles is pretty rocky and bumpy so be prepared. Luckily there are no specific parking rules here so you don't have to come too early to get a spot but it definitely fills up fast and isn't as fun later during the day.

We started our hike around 7:15ish and didn't run into hardly anyone until we were on our way back. The first part of the trail is through some woods and goes over some small creeks. It's a steady uphill climb but nothing major. Once you get past that, you are walking along side of a mountain and there are some pretty nice views of the valley. The first two pictures below is a pretty nice view of the valley headed back to the trailhead and also a view of some small ponds.

Once you get pat that, you can then go right to Caribou Lake or left to Dorothy. We started out going right and as you can see from the picture below, Ali is posing above Caribou. Be warned, it's pretty windy at this point so you need to be prepared. Also, there is about a 1,000 elevation difference between the top of the mountain and Caribou Lake so it makes walking back not very fun.

Once we hit Caribou, we walked about 1.5 miles or so in the valley. It was very pretty with small streams and waterfalls. Yet again, we were the only people there so it was very peaceful.

After we got back up to the split, we then hiked about 7 minutes to Dorothy Lake. It wasn't anything special but since we were there we figured why not. The picture below shows the trail headed to Dorothy.

By the time it was all said and done, we ended up hiking almost 12 miles with quite a bit of elevation gain. As you can see from the green chart below, what really sucked was the ups and downs. But overall I would recommend this trail. It had a very good mixture of terrain and as long as you get there early, it's pretty secluded as well.

Grays Peak

Over the past few weeks we've been trying to hike Grays and Torreys but haven't had much luck with the weather. Finally on Friday it said no rain and fairly warm so we decided to give it a shot. Needless to say, the weather was wrong.

We started out the hike in the drizzling rain but it wasn't too bad since we were layered up and the views were very pretty. The first mile or so follows a creek fairly to your left and you have mountains on all sides of you. Below is a picture from the trailhead.

As you continue to head uphill, the views stay fairly similar until you can finally see the peaks. The tops are covered in the picture below due to the clouds but it still looked pretty cool.

After your gradual uphill, which starts at 11,000 already, you then start to really head uphill. I'm not used to hiking above 12,000 a whole lot and I could definitely feel the lack of oxygen. As you start getting towards the top, it gets fairly rocky but the views of the meadow leading back to the trailhead were nice.

Unfortunately at about 13,000 our light drizzle turned into windy/snowy conditions. We both made it up to Grays but couldn't see more than 30 feet in front of us so we didn't end up going over to Torreys as well. We just hit the peak at around 14,278 and then took the saddle-back, which you can see below, then made our way down.

All-in-all we ended up going ~8 miles with a 3,600ish elevation gain. It was definitely a more tiring hike due to the altitude even though the distance wasn't very far. We'll have to head back with better weather and try to tackle both of them and actually get to enjoy the views.

Thunder Lake via Ouzel Falls

For this week's hike Ali and I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park. After going through our usual 20 minutes of, "What hike do you want to go on?" and the typical response of, "I don't care, what hike do you want to go on?" a few times, we finally settled on Ouzel Falls. Once we got there however things looked a tad on the familiar side and we suddenly remembered we did Blue Bird Lake in this area last year. Oh well, there are a few different trails around here so off we went.

To start, this is a fairly popular hike so I recommend getting there before 7:30 if you want a parking spot. Since the first part of the hike is fairly easy and takes you to the falls, it's common for a lot of families to be on the first few miles of the trail. However I wouldn't rush the first part of the hike to get away from everyone as the bulk of the trail is right beside the river and it's very pretty. There are quite a few random smaller falls until it leads up to Ouzel Falls which is where the majority of the families stop. Below are a few pictures of the river and some of the falls.

After the falls we branched right to heard toward Blue Bird, Thunder, and Lion Lake. I enjoyed this part of the trail because you are walking along the side of the valley and it has a good view of the mountains in the distance. It was also pretty shady which was nice since the weather as a tad on the warm side. You'll pass two more branch off spots for Lion and Blue Bird but we decided to head to Thunder Lake. The trail was pretty secluded the day we were there and was a nice mix of some mountain views and being in the forest. The lake itself was your typical end of the hike lake with mountains surrounding it. Below is a picture of Thunder Lake. 

Overall I would definitely recommend this hike. It's good a good mixture of rivers, water falls, mountain views, and lakes. While the falls are probably the most distinguishing factor on this hike, I have no complaints about everything else. Even though AllTrails said it was around 11.5 miles, my Fenix tracked around 14 miles with a 2,386 elevation gain. I know we did a little more walking around than just hitting the trail so that may account for another mile. 

Chair Rocks via Colorado Trail

For our 4th of July hike we decided to head down around Pine, CO. The main reason for this was that every popular campground and hiking area was swamped with people having a long weekend so we wanted to be as far away from them as possible. The drive from Denver took right around an hour and was very pretty once you went past Pine and you started to follow the North Fork South Platte River.

The hike itself was right around 10 miles with about 1,200 elevation gain if you hiked around the boulders some at the top. The first 3 miles are pretty hot and boring all-in-all. It goes through an area that is still recovering from a wildfire so there isn't much protection from the sun and after the first 15 min, the scenery is about the same.

After you get through that section, the next 3ish miles is similar rolling hills but they are going through a lightly forested area. You get a few minor views of some boulders in the distance but nothing life changing. The only thing really worth it on this hike is the last .25 miles or so when you get to the "Chair Rocks" portion of the hike. Once you start going up on some of the bigger boulders, you get a good view of the other side of the mountain.

Overall I'd say this is a fairly easy hike but I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. There are a lot better places to go.

Maroon Bells

Ever since we came to Colorado we've always heard people talk about how pretty Maroon Bells is and that we should go there. After looking into the camp sites and having to book 6 months in advance, I can now confirm that they are definitely correct.

Ali and I booked a campsite at Silver Bells, which is the first campsite past the ranger station. It's a pretty nice location with the river right beside you and allows easy access both to hiking and to Aspen if you need any supplies (beer). The sites were kinda close to one another so you don't get as much privacy as you would at other locations but it was also nice you could back your car up to the site so you didn't have to haul supplies in. Another quick note is I hope you enjoy cold river water because that is the only running water on the campgrounds. Now that the campsite is out of the way, it's time to talk about the hikes.

West Maroon Trail

We got up early Friday morning and drove in so we started our first hike, West Maroon Trail, around 9:30 am. The first part of the hike is very flat and is the super touristy section that everyone goes to. The picture below is the one everyone is used to seeing. It's crazy how perfect the reflection is in the water.

After you pass Maroon Lake, which is around 9,580, you head up to Crater Lake. This trail is fairly strenuous as it goes over some rocky terrain and climbs to an elevation of 10,076. The views the entire way are very pretty and this is the last stop where you see quite a few people.

Once you get past that, you continue to climb uphill over similar terrain. When we went, there were still quite a few snowy sections so we weren't able to make it to the top. The first picture below is a view above Crater Lake with my carry on dog with me. He's got a bad back so he hikes for about 20 min and then gets carried for about 3 hours so he has a pretty solid deal. The next picture was around 11,400 and is where we started to get snowed out. We hiked along the side for a while but decided it wasn't worth it.

All in all this trail was a little over 9.5 miles round trip with around 1,400 elevation gain. It was a beautiful hike and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Maroon-Snowmass Trail to Willow Lake

The next day we started out doing the scenic loop trail. This is a very low key 1.5 mile loop that gives you a good view of the lake and also has a very good chance of seeing a moose or two, which is the only reason we did it. I recommend doing it just to say you did but it's pretty busy if you don't get there very early.

Now let's talk about the real hike. This hike starts in the same spot and goes all the way to Crater Lake so you get about 1.8 miles of the same terrain but it's still very pretty. Once you hit Carter lake you make a right and start a very long and tiring uphill climb. Since this is a hard hike, you instantly lose 99% of the people there which makes it well worth the isolation. 

After you finish the initial climb, you are on the Minnehaha Gulch portion of the trail. This part is very pretty as you are walking in the woods above the creek. The creek was running pretty hard while we were there since the snow was melting. The picture below shows part of the creek where we had to take off our shoes and walk across since the snow bridge was very very sketchy.

Once you cross the creek, you start another uphill stretch but the views are well worth it. We didn't see any moose while we were on this trail but a lot of people do. This portion of the trail follows another smaller creek and is a mixture of rocky and wooded terrain. After a mile or two, we branched off from the creek and started to lose the trail in the snow. It was about 50/50 snow and normal trail until we got to the split to either do Buckskin Pass or Willow Pass. Both were pretty snowed out but we decided to do Willow Pass. I'd say about 30% of the trail didn't have snow on it and the rest was more of a trudge through hoping we were going the right direction. In the first picture below, you can see a red arrow on where the top of the pass was. The next picture shows part of the snowed out area that we had to walk through.

While that portion of the trail wasn't much fun, it was worth it at the top of the pass. The first picture is the other side of the pass with a frozen Willow Lake to the far right. Then the other picture is where we came from. If you look at the very bottom of the valley, that is Minnehaha Gulch.

So this is probably one of my top 2 hikes ever. It may have not been as much fun, but definitely easier, without the snow and river crossing but that made it worth it. The views are amazing the entire time so I highly recommend doing it but you will need to be in shape. Without going all the way to the lake, we still did around 11 miles with over 2,920 vertical gain. It even exhausted Deuce who didn't hardly hike at all.

Maroon Creek

The last day we wanted to keep it a little more low key so we decided to do the Maroon Creek Trail. This is a 6.4 mile round trip trail that follows the creek from Maroon Lake back towards the campsite. It was more of a wooded hike and then sections of meadows. We saw a few deer and moose have been known to be around the trail. While I'm glad we did it as I love hiking next to water, it was hard to compare it to the previous hikes since you don't get the expansive mountain views on this one. However it was a nice change of pace and I'm not sure if I could do another 2,000+ hike.

So in closing, I highly recommend going here. Even with us at the campsite only 2 miles away we had to get up pretty early to get a parking spot since it's so popular. On the bright side though, a lot of people go there for the very short hike and then leave by 10ish so if you don't care about seeing wildlife earlier in the morning, I'd recommend just waiting a little while to get a parking spot, if you are camping onsite that is since they only allow buses in and out after 8:00 am.

We took a ton of pictures so if you are interested in seeing anymore, you can find them here.

Catamount Falls Trail

This weekend we decided to head to Green Mountain Falls, which is about 30ish minutes west of Colorado Springs. I'm a sucker for waterfalls and water overall so I was excited to see what this hike had to offer. 

The drive to Green Mountain Falls is pretty easy with good roads the entire time, however once you get to Green Mountain Falls, it gets a tad confusing. You actually park in the city by a little pond with an island in the middle of it with no sign of a trail around. You have to hike through a few local streets to get to the actual start of the trail and Verizon had 0 service there, so we did a lot of wandering around. I would highly recommend downloading a map before going there so you don't waste 15 minutes like we did.

Once we got our bearings, or so we thought, we were off. We were originally going to do the Crystal Falls hike but ended up starting out on the Dewey Mountain hike. It's a fairly steep climb to a little mountain overlooking Green Mountain Falls. The views weren't bad but overall I wouldn't waste your time on this one. Below is a quick picture from the top. From there, you could continue to Horseshoe Mountain and link up with the Catamount trail but we decided to backtrack and go down Hondo Ave to the start of Catamount.

Once we finally got on the correct trail, we started our upward climb again. At this point in time we were already 3 miles in from randomly roaming around other trails so it was a little tiring with all of the switchbacks. However the first mile or so of this trail was very pretty with a lot of smaller waterfalls

 After you make it to the top of the mountain, you then go on the backside of it to the "Garden of Eden". This was a pretty meadow area with a few more creeks and a path winding through pretty thick bushes. Overall I really enjoyed this area as it was completely different from the first part of the hike.

Once you get to the end of this trail, it then goes onto a gravel road where you can go right to the reservoir or left to the Ring the Peak trail and end up back at Crystal Falls. We're not big fans of hiking on a road so we backtracked down Catamount and then took Thomas Trail to Crystal Falls. Thomas Trail goes along the side of the mountain with sporadic views of the town. You then get to Crystal Falls right before you start heading back down the mountain into the town. The falls were very pretty and the short hike down followed the stream the entire time.

Minus the getting lost and roaming around a trail we weren't supposed to, I enjoyed this hike. I would say it's on the moderate side as there is a decent amount of elevation gain as soon as you get on the Catamount Trail and you have to cross at least 1 creek when you link up to the Thomas Trail.  As you can see from my GPS below, we were all over the place.