Adventure Travel Photography Blog
For the first time since Memorial Day, I finally got to reconnect with Jim, Diana, and Danelle to hike Kettle Ponds. My fellow hiking buddies, along with Zoe the dog, were staying up in Breckenridge Saturday night. Annie and I arose early Sunday morning to meet them in Silverthorne, CO at the trailhead.
HAPPY HIKING!
Pennsylvania Mountain is a 13,000 foot mountain located near Fairplay, Colorado. Access to the trail head is via a well graded dirt road. When I arrived early on a Saturday morning, I was the first car in the cul-de-sac parking area.
HAPPY HIKING!
Kroenke Lake lies in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness and is just a short drive from Buena Vista. Buena Vista and Salida are wonderful small towns to visit while exploring this amazing wilderness area chock full of Colorado’s famous 14ers.
HI HO, HI HO, IT’s OFF TO THE LAKE I GO!
I have been wanting to hike to Lake Isabelle for a long time. For some reason, however, I only think about it in the winter time when the gate is closed which requires many extra miles along the road. Finally, I timed my hike to coincide with opening day at Brainard Lake Recreation Area.
HAPPY HIKING!
Thunderhead Trail is the most popular hiking route on Mount Werner, the ski mountain in Steamboat Springs. The point to point trail travels 3.3 miles from the base of the mountain to the summit.
GO HIKING!
Steamboat Springs, also known as Steamboat or the “boat”, is located in Routt County, Colorado and has a population of approximately 13,000. The town came by its name during early times when trappers heard a chugging noise and thought a steamboat was coming down the river. Upon discovering the sound came from the surrounding natural hot springs, they named the settlement Steamboat Springs.
Today, the small, mountain town is popular tourist destination for both winter and summer activities. While I have visited Steamboat in the summer, winter and fall, this post focuses on things to do during the warmer months.
EXPLORE!
When in Colorado for months due to the COVID crisis, why not take advantage of all the state has to offer. While my outdoor preference is to hike in the Rocky Mountains, living in Denver, I can’t always be in the high country. As a result, I thought why not hike and bike the High Line Canal.
I have walked, biked and even ridden horses on portions of the High Line Canal, but I have never completed it in its entirety. I honestly didn’t know where it began or ended or if it was easily accessible in segments like the Colorado Trail.
GO BIKING!
I changed up my hiking scenery this past week. Instead of heading toward the Rocky Mountain foothills near Bailey, I ventured toward the foothills near Loveland, Colorado. Here, I hiked the trail to Stone Mountain.
GO HIKING!
I just recently posted about South Park Trail and the hike I completed the following day, Bruno Gulch, intersects this trail at a location farther south. That tidbit of information isn’t terribly important if you are only looking for a short and easy hike, but if you are looking for more distance, these two trails may be hiked together as a point-to-point.
GO HIKING!
Another month at home in Colorado during COVID equals another weekend at Estabrook, our family ranch near Bailey, Colorado. This time, a friend of mine, Tina, came up from New Mexico. She is a nuclear scientist, and I really enjoy our intellectually stimulating conversations. Such chats have sometimes been lacking during my retirement years.
Anyway, she is also a hard core hiker and definitely ran me through the ringer during the early hiking season in Colorado. While she is already in better shape than me, she had additional advantages. She lives at a higher altitude in Albuquerque, and has already been enjoying hiking weather.
Aside from the usual hike we do on our property, we set out on two more hikes for the weekend. The first was Shelf Lake and the second was Rolling Creek.
HIKE AWAY!