Distance: 13.2 miles to trail fork Rating: Difficult When my parents first took my sister and me up to Wyoming about twenty years ago, they made a point of taking us past the Grand Tetons. I remember being in absolute awe of the imposing wall of rock that towered over the valley floor. The Teton Range is nothing like what we see in Colorado. The Front Range mountains gradually climb, starting first with the foothills and eventually rising up to the highest fourteen thousand foot peaks. The Tetons, on the other hand, are “fault block mountains” that jut out of the [View Full Entry]

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Distance: Yellowstone Falls ~ 2 miles, Mud Volcano ~ .5 mile, Natural Bridge ~ 3 miles Rating: Yellowstone Falls - moderate, Mud Volcano - easy, Natural Bridge - easy On our fourth and final day in Yellowstone we did a bit of recovering after the previous day’s hikes. We decided to hit the Upper and Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mud Volcano, and the Natural Bridge. All three of these stops are along the east side of the caldera zone and served as nice stops on our way south to the Grand Tetons. During our four nights [View Full Entry]

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Distance: Fairy Falls - 5 miles, Monument Geyser Basin - 1.8 miles, Ice Lake - 4 miles Rating: Fairy Falls - easy, Monument Geyser Basin - strenuous, Ice Lake - moderate Day three in Yellowstone saw us returning to the heart of the park and several interesting locations inside the caldera region. Our itinerary included Fairy Falls, Monument Geyser Basin, and Ice Lake. All told, we covered about 12 miles between three different hikes on a day that saw some wild variations in the weather. We woke up to a thunder storm (something we don’t usually experience in Denver) which continued [View Full Entry]

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Distance: Mammoth Hot Springs ~ 1 mile, Hellroaring Creek - 4 miles Rating: Mammoth Hot Springs - easy, Hellroaring Creek - difficult For day two in Yellowstone, we decided to head to the northern part of the park, just south of the Montana border. We visited a couple of popular areas and did our first legitimate trail hike of the trip. The northern section of Yellowstone is outside of the volcano’s caldera and tends to be more mountainous. Our first stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, one of the most unique thermal areas in the park. Unlike the geyser basins within the [View Full Entry]

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Distance: All locations - less than 1 mile Rating: All locations - easy For our first full day in the Yellowstone National Park, we decided to hit as many of the geyser-related tourist attractions as possible. Being a week day, we agreed that it made sense to visit the geyser basins that would be full of tourists over the weekend. For those who haven’t been to Yellowstone, much of the area is taken up by the caldera of a massive volcano. Within the caldera are numerous regions of geothermic activity that heats water on the surface. Voila! Geysers and hot springs [View Full Entry]

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The big summer trip has arrived! Back in the winter, I proposed a trip to Yellowstone National Park. My friends Christy and Robbie were interested and we agreed to camp the entire time. Now, it should be noted that I haven’t gone camping since I was in high school, and I don’t even want to mention how long ago that was! Given how large Yellowstone is and our desire to also visit the Grand Tetons to the south, we agreed to make it a six day trip. When I had gone camping as a kid, I was never out for more [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 10 miles Rating: difficult-strenuous For the second hike of my “Wilderness Area Tour,” I headed to the southeastern part of the Eagles Nest Wilderness above the towns of Dillon/Silverthorne and Frisco. At 133,688 acres, Eagles Nest is one of the larger wilderness areas in Colorado. Running through the area are the impressive mountains of the Gore Range, several of which are visible to drivers heading west from the Eisenhower Tunnel. One of the most recognizable peaks is dome-shaped Buffalo Mountain above Silverthorne. The I-70 corridor and the Blue River Valley se [View Full Entry]

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Distance: 13.2 miles to intersection with Rosalie Trail Rating (for the section I hiked): moderate One of my favorite discoveries this summer was The Complete Guide To Colorado’s Wilderness Areas by John Fielder and Mark Pearson. It wasn’t until I got my hands on this book that I realized just how many designated wilderness areas exist in Colorado’s high country. There are actually 42 wilderness areas across the state, encompassing millions of acres of land (the book also includes national parks and monuments in its list). This is just another reason to love this state [View Full Entry]

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Distance: Mills Lake - 5.35 miles, Black Lake - 9.8 miles Rating: to Mills Lake - moderate Despite what I’ve said earlier about snow in the high country, I couldn’t resist heading back up to Rocky Mountain National Park again. Since it was still only mid June, I knew there would be snow on the ground. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much snow would still be around. For this hike, my dad and I had planned to make the long trek to Black Lake in the glacial cirque below the jagged peaks of the Continental Divide. Unfortunately, there was [View Full Entry]

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Distance: to view of Chair Rocks ~ 9 miles Rating: difficult I typically pride myself in knowing where to go hiking when the weather gets oppressive in the summer. So, I figured I would be fine if I headed back to the South Platte River Valley in the Buffalo Creek area. After all, it’s far enough away from Denver that the weather should be pretty different, right? Wrong. This was easily one of the most uncomfortable hikes I’ve ever been on. As I descended towards the South Platte River, I watched the temperature on my car’s thermometer climb higher and higher. [View Full Entry]

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