Adventure Travel Photography Blog
After ten days of wildflower hikes in Crested Butte, I changed it up a bit and hiked to Green Lake. I’m not exactly sure about how I’d rate the 8.5-mile Green Lake Trail. If I were just walking the second half, I’d probably give it five stars. If I were just walking the first half, I’d probably give it 1 star. I suppose that averages out to three stars, but I wouldn’t want anyone to miss Green Lake.
HAPPY HIKING!
With as many hikes as I’ve been doing in Crested Butte, I would normally try to condense them into a few blogs. But the wildflowers in Crested Butte during mid-July are simply remarkable. It’s hard enough to condense my daily barrage of photos just down to ten. As a result, each hike warrants its own post. Today, Hasley Basin Loop gets the honors.
HAPPY HIKING!
Rustler’s Gulch is a 9 mile, heavily trafficked trail located in the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness near Crested Butte, Colorado.
Rustler’s Gulch is about 8 miles from town, but the drive takes about 30 minutes on the dirt road, FS 317. Don’t worry, FS 317 is passable by two-wheel drive car to this location, and the drive through mountainsides of wildflowers is spectacular.
HAPPY HIKING!
I previously posted about hiking a portion of the Snodgrass Trail from the Washington Gulch side. Today I hiked the other portion of the trail beginning at the more popular start on FS 317.
While I loved the Washington Gulch side, the 3.3 mile lollipop loop from FS 317 was even better! It is hard to imagine with all the wildflower hikes in Crested Butte that I’ve completed this week, that they can keep topping one another. But it seems the Snodgrass Trail did just that!
Happy Hiking!
After a handful of challenging hikes in Crested Butte during the Wildflower Festival in mid-July, I picked an easy one Friday, Judd Falls Trail. This short, out-and-back 2.2-mile hike was perfect to get Annie a little exercise before I completed my “on the road” chores such as laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning VANgo and the like.
Happy Hiking!
Today, during my two-week camping stay in Crested Butte, I hiked Scarp Ridge in the ghost town of Irwin.
Getting to Scarp Ridge Trail requires driving up a portion of Keebler Pass. The final mile, after Irwin Lake gets a little rocky and steep, but there are no low hanging trees and it is reasonably wide. I read many AllTrails reviews that almost scared me away, but VANgo handled it mightily. I’m glad I went!
Happy Hiking!
Wednesday was a day of dreary weather. As a result, I picked a trail I saw as I drove to my Crested Butte campsite off Washington Gulch Road. It turned out to be Snodgrass Trail which initially confused me, as the AllTrails app shows the trailhead off FS 317.
Happy Hiking!
I’ve always wanted to visit Crested Butte during the Wildflower Festival. I finally did just that and for my first hike to Gothic Mountain via Trail 403 from Washington Gulch Road, they did not disappoint!
Happy Hiking!
I didn’t have any trouble finding the state sign in Washington. As soon as I crossed the border between Lewiston and Clarkston on Hwy 12 over the Snake River, there it was. I did, however, have trouble finding a costume at first.
I wanted to be a cherry pie and have Annie be a cherry, but each time I tried ordering the costume it either took too long to arrive at a place where I would be stationary, or they wanted to charge me $56 for shipping, four times the amount of the costume. Seriously?!?
As a result, I had to come up with something handmade. This is when I really wished my nephew Michael was around. He is an incredible artist. Check out the shoes he does on Instagram @kick_me_art.
TAKE THE CHALLENGE!
With the Olympic National Park encompassing much of the Olympic Peninsula, one may be inclined to think there are not many dog friendly hikes in the area. Fortunately, there are many state parks on the Olympic Peninsula as well as National Forest where dogs are allowed to roam.
In order to let Annie off-leash and to have more solitude, Tina and I leaned toward hiking in the Olympic National Forest. Lucky for us, several trailheads lined the Hamma Hamma Road where we camped.
Below is a list of dog-friendly trails we hiked on the Olympic Peninsula.
BRING FIDO!