close up of aspen leave

The Colorado Trail – Segment 4

I’m feeling exhilarated and exhausted simultaneously. Segment 4 of the Colorado Trail was simply magnificent! I highly suggest hiking this segment during the fall when the aspens and willows change from green to golden. I know through hikers may not have this luxury, but day hikers shouldn’t miss this part of the trail in the fall.

How to Get There

The trailhead can be found 8 miles from Bailey down County Road 68 in the Pike National Forest. The road changes names to FS-560, but consistently staying to the right at any splits results in arriving at the Rolling Creek Trailhead parking area. A forest service road extends from this parking area 0.3 miles up to another parking area directly across from the trail to the right. Continue reading “The Colorado Trail – Segment 4” →

yellow flower

The Colorado Trail – Segment 1

Parking the Cars

JB and I wanted to hike the first segment of the Colorado Trail (“CT”) which begins in Waterton Canyon and ends 16.8 miles later at the South Platte River Trailhead located near the ghost town South Platte. As such, we took a road trip, each driving 130+ miles!

Our morning began at 6:30am, where we met at the Woolly Mammoth parking lot. From there we caravanned to the end of Segment 1 to drop off a car so that we’d have transportation upon completing our 17 mile adventure. Then we backtracked to Waterton Canyon to begin our hike at 8:45am. Continue reading “The Colorado Trail – Segment 1” →

pretty plant

The Colorado Trail – Segment 2

Many thanks to my friends, Harlow, Erin, Brian, Justin, and Kristin for getting me one step closer to my goal of hiking the entire Colorado Trail or should I say 30K+ steps closer according to my fitbit.

Getting There

I took a tip from Jim and planned for three of us to hike the trail in one direction and three of us in the other, so we had cars at both ends of Segment 2, the next section I planned to tackle. As such, at Harlow’s suggestion, we met at the Twin Forks PNR on 285 to trade vehicles so that we would end up with our own cars at the end. Given Erin, Brian and Harlow drew the downhill direction, they would finish before us and this way we didn’t have to try coordinating at day’s end. Continue reading “The Colorado Trail – Segment 2” →