{"id":649,"date":"2013-08-05T10:00:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/?p=649"},"modified":"2013-08-02T14:39:39","modified_gmt":"2013-08-02T20:39:39","slug":"finding-a-hike-in-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/articles\/finding-a-hike-in-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding a hike in Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Deb Stanley,\u00a0Examiner.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

It may just be one of the best problems to have, how do I find a good\u00a0hiking\u00a0trail?\u00a0Colorado is a beautiful state with breathtaking places, but how do you pick a hike that’s not a dud?\u00a0Here are some of the best places and hikes to consider:<\/p>\n

Rocky Mountain National Park<\/strong>.\u00a0There aren’t many dud hikes in the park.\u00a0Mills Lake,\u00a0Calypso Cascades & Ouzel Falls, \u00a0Flattop Mountain,\u00a0Gem Lake,\u00a0Bridal Veil Falls,\u00a0\u00a0Nymph, Dream & Emerald Lakes,\u00a0\u00a0Fern Falls & Fern Lake,\u00a0\u00a0Finch Lake,\u00a0Mount Ida,Spectacle Lakes,\u00a0Ypsilon & Chipmunk Lakes,\u00a0Shelf & Solitude Lakes,\u00a0Jewel Lake,\u00a0Timber Lake,\u00a0\u00a0Arch Rocks\/The Pool,\u00a0\u00a0Spruce Lake,\u00a0Alberta Falls,\u00a0MacGregor Falls.<\/p>\n

There are two wilderness areas just south of Rocky Mountain National Park, the\u00a0Indian Peaks Wilderness\u00a0and\u00a0James Peak Wilderness. Both are filled with dozens of trails to scenic lakes and mountain peaks. Two of the easiest hikes to get you started in this area are\u00a0Lost Lake\u00a0and\u00a0Diamond Lake. Or hike to\u00a0Isabelle Lake,\u00a0Mitchell\/Blue Lakes,\u00a0Crater Lakes,\u00a0Forest Lakes,Arapahoe Lakes\u00a0and\u00a0Woodland Lake & Skyscraper Reservoir.<\/p>\n

Want to try something different, how about hiking to an\u00a0arch? There’s\u00a0Harmonica Arch\u00a0in the Pike National Forest,\u00a0Royal Arch\u00a0in Boulder and the\u00a0Rattlesnake Arches\u00a0near Grand Juction.<\/p>\n

Interested in\u00a0history?<\/strong>\u00a0Then don’t miss the chance\u00a0to see several homesteads from the late 1880’s\u00a0and early 1900’s.\u00a0Homestead Meadows is in Larimer County, just about 10 miles south of Estes park.\u00a0There’s also the\u00a0Shafthouse hike\u00a0(a failed reservoir project) in the Pike National Forest.<\/p>\n

Want something even more unique?<\/strong>\u00a0Check\u00a0out the dinosaur tracks at\u00a0Dakota Ridge\u00a0in Golden. There’s a castle at\u00a0Lair O The Bear\u00a0that you can see from the trail, especially in the winter when the trees lose their leaves. And there are the castle ruins at\u00a0Mount Falcon. You can even hike to an old fire lookout tower on\u00a0Squaw Peak\u00a0near Evergreen or at\u00a0Devil’s Head\u00a0in the Pike National Forest . Or try a “hike” underground by exploring\u00a0Fulford Cave.<\/p>\n

Dreaming of climbing a\u00a014er?<\/strong>\u00a0One of the best for first timers is actually two peaks,\u00a0Grays & Torreys.<\/p>\n

Traveling to the\u00a0high country?<\/strong>\u00a0Don’t miss\u00a0South Willow Falls\u00a0in Summit County. Or visit\u00a0Hells Hole\u00a0in the Mount Evans Wilderness.\u00a0In\u00a0Glenwood Springs, there’s the very popular hike to\u00a0Hanging Lake\u00a0or try the trial at the next exit at\u00a0Grizzly Creek. You can also hike to\u00a0Doc Holliday’s grave\u00a0and the\u00a0Storm King Memorial.<\/p>\n

While in town hikes may not be as exciting as mountain hikes, two\u00a0of the best areas\u00a0to hike on the front range are the\u00a0Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks\u00a0and\u00a0the Jefferson\u00a0County Open Space parks\u00a0in Golden, Morrison and Evergreen. Boulder and JeffCo have informative\u00a0Web sites with\u00a0good maps and\u00a0easy to use\u00a0information on their trails. Hikers often choose Jefferson County hiking trails because they are so well marked, with easy to find and read signs.<\/p>\n

Like\u00a0waterfalls?<\/strong>\u00a0Here are\u00a0my favorite waterfall hikes\u00a0and\u00a0my favorite waterfalls to visit with little to no hiking. Here are some waterfall hikes:\u00a0Bridal Veil Falls\u00a0(RMNP),\u00a0Alberta Falls,\u00a0\u00a0Lost Lake\u00a0(Indian Peaks Wilderness),\u00a0\u00a0Maxwell Falls\u00a0(Evergreen),\u00a0Horsetooth Falls\u00a0(Ft. Collins),Boulder Falls.<\/p>\n

County Web sites:\u00a0Boulder open space trails<\/a>,\u00a0Jefferson County open space trails<\/a>,\u00a0Larimer County parks & open lands<\/a>,\u00a0Denver parks<\/a>,\u00a0Douglas County parks & trails<\/a>,\u00a0Summit County open space & trails<\/a>,\u00a0El Paso County parks & trails<\/a><\/p>\n

Federal government Web sites:\u00a0Rocky Mountain National Park<\/a>,\u00a0Indian Peaks Wilderness<\/a>,\u00a0Brainard Lake Recreation Area<\/a>,\u00a0Arapahoe & Roosevelt National Forests<\/a>,\u00a0Pike & San Isabel National Forests<\/a>.<\/p>\n

State Web sites:\u00a0Colorado State Parks Web site<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It may just be one of the best problems to have, how do I find a good hiking trail?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[17,49,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-649","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles","8":"tag-colorado","9":"tag-hike","10":"tag-hiking"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 11:33:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}