Mountaintop adventures
Jan 3, 2025
I parked in one of the large, paid lots at the base of Manitou Springs. It was 7:45am on a Friday in early January, and the lot was basically deserted. From the lot, I caught a glimpse of a bullet-straight cut through the pines of the nearby foothills below Pikes Peak. That cut was my intended hike that morning: the Manitou Incline.
Continue reading “The Manitou Incline and Barr Trail to Barr Camp”
October 13, 2024
I spend a lot of time in Eagle County, Colorado. So it was only a matter of time before I tried the much-hyped Booth Falls trail. The timing was more or less an accident. I’d overheard that this weekend in October was the last for the “hiker express” bus between Vail Village and the Booth Lake/Booth Falls trailhead.
Continue reading “Booth Lake and Booth Falls”
August 18, 2024
On my bucket list of “Colorado things” the line item “Check out Fort Collins” seemed to languish near the bottom of the list. And I knew that wasn’t really fair because I’d only ever heard wonderful things about “FoCo”. I’m neither a college student, nor particularly into beer. But it still seemed worth checking out. Plus it was an excuse to stop at the new Colorado Buc-ee’s.
Continue reading “Horsetooth Rock Trail”
August 16, 2024
I left my apartment in Denver around 12:30 am, passing bars and sidewalks still populated with the Thursday night crew. I headed northeast, skirting past Boulder before heading into the foothills towards Rocky Mountain National Park. That’s when the rain started. “Uh oh” I thought … “already this is not going to plan.”
Continue reading “Longs Peak via the Keyhole Route”
July 6, 2024
I drove along the smooth dirt roads of Sylvan Lake SP, a thousand-acre jewel of a park wedged into the mountains between the Vail and Aspen area. I followed Road 415 along East Brush Creek towards the tiny town of Fulford. Just outside the small townsite, I parked at the Nolan Lake trailhead.
Continue reading “New York Mountain”
July 4, 2024
We pulled off the paved roadway to Montezuma, en route to the Argentine Pass trailhead. The car trundled along the dusty and rutted Peru Creek Road, hewing closely to the eponymous Peru Creek. It was only 7:30 am or so, but the sun already sat high in the sky, shining through endless stands of Aspens. It was that wonderful period of early summer where the days seemed to last forever.
Continue reading “Mount Edwards”
June 22, 2024
We zipped along State Route 149 around dawn, towards the tiny, picturesque mining town of Creede. The road followed the Rio Grande River, perhaps 50 miles from its headwaters in the rugged San Juan Mountains, and nearly 1,800 miles from its discharge into the Gulf of Mexico.
Continue reading “San Luis Peak from West Willow Creek”
June 19, 2024
I wound my way up the narrow, winding road to Taos Ski Valley late one Friday evening in June. Eventually, I arrived at my hotel at the base of the ski area. It was a super nice hotel, the sort of place that charged a small mortgage for nights in the winter, but had some sweet deals in the off season. There I’d catch some very comfortable sleep before ascending Wheeler Peak in the morning.
Continue reading “Wheeler Peak, New Mexico”
January 20, 2024
I pulled into the small trailhead parking lot below Monument Canyon around 8 am. Being mid-January, this meant the sun was only just beginning to rise above the tall hills and mesas to the East. Above me was Colorado National Monument, in my opinion among the most underrated units in the National Park system. Less than a mile in the opposite direction was the muddy floodplain of the Colorado River.
Continue reading “Monument Canyon (Colorado National Monument)”
October 10, 2023
I left Gatlinburg well before dawn, in hopes of getting up and into Great Smoky Mountains National Park sans traffic jams. This basically worked. I wound my way through the pitch darkness of the forest, en route to the high ridge crest at Newfound Gap. The lack of views did not bum me out: I’d be coming back the same way later that day.
Continue reading “Charlies Bunion (Great Smoky Mountains NP)”