Latest / Fit for Hiking / Ep. 42 Spring Hiking In Colorado
Transcript
- Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for hiking podcast. 1s Hello and welcome to the fit for hiking podcast. Well you guys, I am officially recording from Guatemala. We are here for five more weeks for those who are maybe new listeners. Um, my family actually lives in Antigua, Guatemala, so every springtime slash kind of like the later part of winter, we like to come here since we both work remote, we work from here. Um, our daughter gets some awesome time with her grandparents, and we just love the culture. We love the climate. It's such a cool, unique place, and it's kind of become our second home since we come here for long stints every year. Um, so it feels really good to be back. We are, um, just really enjoying, like, going for long walks outside. We have a gym here that we absolutely love. Um, there's so many good coffee shops and restaurants, awesome hikes, the list goes on and on. Um, so yeah, this is my first episode recording here in Guatemala. Um, today I'm going to be talking about spring in Colorado. So if you are not living in Colorado, if you don't have any plans to visit Colorado, this one might not be the most interesting for you. But I want to talk about this because spring is definitely kind of a unique time as far as hiking in the state of Colorado or anywhere really of high altitudes. Um, so it's tricky because it's a bit of a shoulder season. You're not maybe getting the same amount and volume of snow and ice, but at higher altitudes especially, it's not going to be, you know, beautiful green flowers the same way that you would think of spring, maybe in other areas, like growing up in Indiana, spring kind of started in like late March, April, and you start to experience nicer weather. You start to see flowers blooming. And unfortunately, spring is a rough season in high altitude climates like the mountain areas of Colorado. So you don't quite get that same spring experience. To me, spring in Colorado is kind of just like an elongated winter. And then all of a sudden, sometime in June, you're like, oh, now it's summer. It's so weird. Um, so I want to talk about best areas for spring hiking because it is such an interesting season, you're not going to want to just go hiking anywhere. And I've done a lot of trial and error over the years. Particularly when I did my 52 hike challenge. This was really tough because, um, you know, I spent months hiking in spikes and snowshoes, and it was a really long winter, which turned into very snowy spring. So I had to get creative and kind of figure out the areas that were great for hiking in the spring and then the areas that just really were not ideal. So I want to go over different areas and specific hikes that I really like in the spring and Colorado, and then how to prepare just other general notes of what you're going to want to consider when hiking in Colorado throughout the months of like, March through May. Okay. So let's dive into a couple of different areas. So if you're wanting to kind of stick closer to the foothills, I'm going to be talking about evergreen and Golden Morrisson type of areas. So this is going to be like within about an hour of Denver. You're not going to go far. These are great. Just like quick day hikes on a weekend where you're not wanting to drive super, super far. So a couple of my favorite options here. If you're wanting to go somewhere where you're going to get awesome panoramic views, you're going to be higher altitude, a little bit more driving and a little bit more risk of inclement weather, but the views make up for it. Then you're going to want to check out Chief Mountain and MSD Fire Lookout. Those are two amazing options for really good views. Like a lot of bang for your buck when you're not hiking very far. And it's not a crazy intense hike, but you still want like 360 mountain views. Those are great. Um, like I said, higher altitude. So you're going to want to really check the weather because where it might be sunny and 70, in Denver it might be 40 and sleeting on these hikes. So definitely check the weather, check recent reviews and make sure you're ready to go with everything that you might need. And you're definitely going to want to have spikes handy for these even into May. Um, okay. The next area is Matthews Winters. This is a great area really close to Red rocks, so if you don't want to drive very far and you want something just kind of rolling and easy, Matthews Winters is a great one. I used to go, um, trail running here and this is a great option. It's kind of in a warmer area of the foothills, not as high of altitude. So it's a good option in those spring months. Um, similarly, we have some areas in Golden such as North Table Mountain, South Table Mountain. So these are going to be good, like warm weather. Um, like it's just going to be a little bit. Warmer on these hikes than it is in some of the other areas. In general, you can trust that hikes in Golden and Morrison are going to be a little bit nicer weather probably more more melted than hikes in evergreen evergreens, just a little bit higher altitude. And it's going to be icier. There's more trees. So just trust me there. If you want zero ice on your spring hikes, then Golden and Morrison are going to be better for you than evergreen. Um, Larry the Bear and Corwin Park are two areas pretty close together in, um, in the evergreen area, and those are going to be some nice kind of like, rolling areas. There's going to be a lot of trees, and in general, you're probably going to experience more mud and ice here, um, in those spring months, but still really nice options if you don't want to drive super far from Denver and then a couple other ones in evergreen that I like are the Brothers Lookouts and just kind of that Three Sisters Park. There's a bunch of different trails there, and Maxwell Falls, there's Upper Maxwell and Lower Maxwell, so there's two different trailheads that you can start on. Those are really nice ones when you don't want to drive far, but you still want some nice views and to just be out in nature. One thing to note, very specific here is the lower Maxwell Falls parking lot turns to solid ice because it never sees the light of day. Like it's just very shaded there with the trees and the mountain coverage. Um, so it can be really, really slick. So if there's been recent snow or ice, that parking lot is going to be really tricky if you don't have a good tires. So just be careful there. Okay, so those are my racks for the Front Range area. The next would be Estes Park area. And so think more like late spring for this because again just location early early spring it's still going to be pretty snowy. Um, so a couple of my favorite hikes in Estes Park outside of Rocky Mountain National Park would be Kruger Rock, Lily Mountain, and Gem Lake. These are all really beautiful, like panoramic hikes. You get such good views. Um, and they're going to be nice options for late spring. So one thing about Estes Park, if you're kind of unfamiliar, is that the national park, Rocky Mountain National Park, is located in Estes Park. That's one of the main entrances to the park, so you're going to see a ton of hike options within the park. Um, however, as you continue driving further into the park, the weather can change quite a bit, even from the town of Estes Park. So that's why I'm not recommending a ton in Rocky Mountain National Park, because it's going to be higher altitude in a lot of areas, and it might not melt as fast. So I recommend Rocky Mountain National Park starting in like June, whereas Estes Park, you could dabble even end of April and beginning of May. 1s Beautiful, beautiful area. Great views. Okay, next up is Buena Vista. Um, this is a really nice area. You're going to drive a little bit. It's about 2.5 hours from Denver, but because of the location, you're going to get some really nice weather for spring hiking and spring camping. We did this for Memorial Day last year and it was awesome. There's some great waterfall hikes here, so some of my favorites are Brown Creek Falls. This is a really great, really great hike. Um, Agnes Veil Falls and then Narrow Gauge Trail 1432. It's a really weird trail name, but awesome views. Really lovely. Um, I really like Buena Vista at all times of the year, but I think spring is a really nice time because it gets pretty hot there in the summer. So if you want to kind of avoid really, really hot temps, but still get out for some awesome hikes, then April May are some good months to go. Okay, moving back to a little bit closer to Denver area, we have Cheesman Canyon. This is a very toasty area. It's like a weird little microclimate where you're not super far from Denver, but the temperatures are very warm. You're in a canyon, it's very exposed, very sunny. Um, so you're not going to experience very much ice or snow on the ground, which is really nice if you want just kind of like a warmer hike, this is a great option. And there's a couple different trails that you can take, but the upper and lower Cheesman trails are the most popular. Um, and those are really nice. A lot of people bring like fly fishing poles and we'll go fishing. You can put your feet in the water, um, as you get to the bottom of the canyon. It's a really nice area. 1s Okay. Next up we have Boulder and El Dorado Canyon State Park areas. So Boulder is another great option for fairly close to Denver. Only about 45 minutes kind of give or take depending on what part of Denver you're coming from. And lots of great hike options. A couple of the most popular and just best hiking areas in Boulder are going to be Mount Sunita's. You have great views on that one. And Chautauqua Park really a big fan of those two areas for hiking in Boulder. And you have different options that Chautauqua Park depending on your ability levels. You can go all the way up to the first and second Flatiron if you're kind of up for more of a scramble. And if you want to just stick with more of like a loop, there's options for that too. Um, and then we also have El Dorado Canyon State Park in the lumped in with this because it's kind of a similar area, but it is a state park and it's awesome in the spring. Really, really love this one. In the spring. Again, you get those like pockets of of, um, really nice warm weather. The trails are pretty exposed, so they melt faster. Um, so I love Rattlesnake Gulch, Fowler Trail, and El Dorado Canyon Trail there. I've done a lot of hiking there in the spring, and it's never disappointed you get great views and, uh, yeah, big fan. Just be aware that you're going to need to pay a fee to enter since it is a state park. Um, or you need a state park pass. 2s Okay. Moving on Colorado Springs. So this is south of Denver. So it's naturally going to be a bit warmer. And there's a couple different areas that I recommend that have different hike options okay. So the main ones are Seven Falls, garden of the Gods and Cheyenne Mountain State Park. So Seven falls in particular is going to cost you a bit of money. You do have to take a shuttle and they don't really have parking there. So you have to plan ahead a bit for this one. But it's pretty cool. And it's it's fun with, you know, like young kids, things like that. It's kind of a unique area to check out and really beautiful views. Um, just know that you will need to pay to enter the area and you will need to plan to park at the at the parking lot where they come and and shuttle you. Um, the next is garden of the gods. This is also a really unique area, and a lot of people who are visiting Colorado will go check this out, because you kind of feel like you're stepping back in time. It feels like dinosaurs should be roaming around. This is a really nice one in the spring. Again, it's very exposed. You're not going to have a whole lot of ice and snow. Um, definitely recommend doing it at least once if you are visiting Colorado or if you live in Colorado. And then the next is Cheyenne Mountain State Park. There are so many different trails that you can check out there, and it's just a really beautiful hiking area that's a little bit less commercial, I would say, than the first two options. So if you are more of a hardcore hiker and you want to really work up a sweat, get some good incline, then definitely check out Cheyenne Mountain State Park versus Seven Falls and Garden of the gods. 1s All right, so if you're up for more of a drive, this would be more like a weekend trip. You definitely wouldn't want to do this as a day trip if you're coming from Denver. But Grand Junction is a really great area in the spring because it's very much similar to the climate of Utah. So you're going to feel like you are in the desert. It really is such a different climate than so many areas of Colorado. It's very interesting. You'll go on 70 past all these, you know, ski resorts, all the most famous ones. And then the climate starts to change as you keep going further west towards Utah. And so Grand Junction is very desert as it gets very, very hot in the summer. So the best time to hit it up would be in the spring. So a couple of different areas that I really have enjoyed and I haven't done a ton here, but these were the two areas that I checked out when I went in the spring was big Dominguez Canyon and Colorado National Monument. So the national monument is kind of similar to a national park. You will have to pay to enter. Um, I don't believe national park passes work with national monuments. Um, but it's really cool, beautiful views. As you drive around, you literally feel like you're in, like, Zion National Park. Um, and then there's some hiking opportunity as well. Dogs are not allowed to hike there though, so just know that if you do have pups, you might want to go closer to Big Dominguez Canyon because you're not going to have restrictions there. Um, it is toasty in the spring, so just prepare that it will get quite hot. You'll want a lot of water. You're going to be very exposed. You're going to want to definitely work on some sun protection if you're hiking in these areas in the spring. 1s Okay, so now that we're, uh, done going through all of the different areas where you want to hike in the spring in Colorado, I'm going to cover some tips for spring hiking because, like I said, I've made many mistakes with getting out in the spring and just how it differs from hiking the rest of the year. So go. One and pretty much just always do. This in general is to check recent trail condition reports. You want to know if anything is shut down, if the trailhead is closed for any reason, if there's any animal, you know, wildlife activity that you might want to know about, just all of those things and also just trail conditions, because especially in the spring, it can change on a dime. So I always like to know, all right, will I be able to do this in boots or should I plan to bring my spikes? Is it more of a snowshoe trail? Like there's so many different ways that it could go, so it's really helpful to read what people in the last two weeks have experienced. The next is to bring spikes just in case. So again, like one person could hike at a trail last week and it could be totally clear. But if there's been a lot of snow in the last few days, then you might want spikes. So in general they're pretty lightweight. I like to just have them in my pack in case I come upon a crazy ice patch. And I don't want to fall. Definitely have done that way too many times. The next is to bring layers, because in the mountains weather changes so quickly. You can be mid hike and it could, you could have started out and it was 75 degrees and sunny. And then by the end of the hike it is, you know, sleeting on you or snowing or raining and you just want to be prepared. So I always like to bring a rain jacket, uh, mid layer if I'm hiking in like a tank top or a short sleeve shirt and even like a beanie and gloves, it doesn't hurt to just have those on hand because it might end up being a lot cooler than you think, depending on the location and the altitude. 2s The next is to be prepared for streams and rivers to be extra high in the spring. They're getting a ton of snowmelt fed into the water sources, so river crossings can be really dangerous. And I've experienced this firsthand. Hiking and steamboat in the spring zero out of ten recommend. It was really sketchy. Um, it was just honestly dangerous. And we ended up turning back and not finishing the hike, even though we were all pretty experienced hikers. Um, especially with dogs, if you're bringing your dogs along or if you have little kids, you want to steer clear of really rapid and high river crossings in the spring. It's just not worth it. The water moves so quickly and it can be a lot higher than you realize. 1s Um, the next is to note the altitude and plan accordingly. So obviously the higher the altitude, the more likely it's going to be a lot chillier. You're going to have more snow on the ground that it takes a while to melt, or ice patches. So knowing in general kind of the altitude of the area that you're going will really inform how you dress and what you're kind of prepared for. And along the same lines, you're going to want to avoid really high peaks. Anything above like 11,000ft until June. July is going to be pretty snowy. Um, and yeah, I know a lot of people come to Colorado for the 14,000 foot peaks. They want to hike fourteeners, and I'll have people message me in and ask what, 14 or they should do when they come on a trip in April. And my advice is just to not even bother because it's going to be so snowy and very dangerous. Unless you're very experienced in mountaineering, 14,000 foot peaks should not be messed with until summer. I've even done them in June and experienced really sketchy snowy weather still. So ideally, if you're doing a really high peak 13 14,000ft, you're waiting until end of June, um, through September. And those that's really your kind of your window of safely, uh, hiking those peaks. Um, but yeah, anything above 11,000ft is probably going to be still really snowy and icy. So just be prepared for that if that's kind of what you're looking for or not. 1s Um, if you are visiting Colorado during the spring, just know that the weather is going to be a crapshoot. So if you have a trip planned anytime between March and May, I'll have people ask, how should I dress? I'm visiting Colorado in April or May, and my response is always that it's it's really hard for me to say for sure until you look at the weather report for that week, because I've had people visit at that time of year and have amazing weather, 70 to 80 degrees. And then I've also had people experience blizzards. So it really is going to change day to day. So it's good to just be prepared for that. If you plan to visit in the spring, if you're looking for kind of like wildflower hikes, you know, green trees, green grass clear of all ice and mud, then you're going to want to wait until, um, June, honestly. And June is kind of when things start to get a little bit better in the mountains. Otherwise you really are are here during what's called mud season. It's it's just not necessarily the best for hiking. I wouldn't say spring is my favorite in the mountains, so just be prepared for that. If you want more of that traditional Colorado summer hiking experience that you might see on Instagram, then wait until June. 2s Um. Another note is that if you want to do a desert trip, if you kind of have desert trips on your radar or hitting some of, like the Utah National Parks or anything like that, spring is a great time to do it. When I am just so sick of snow and ice on my hikes. I like to plan trips to desert areas in the spring, so places like Arizona, specifically Sedona, is so nice in the spring. Utah, all of the Utah National Park, so Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, uh, Capitol Reef, even the parks in Moab. So Arches and Canyonlands, those are really great options in the spring anywhere in Nevada, Southern Cal, uh, southern Colorado, like Durango area and New Mexico, those are all really great options if you want just a nice warm weather experience and you don't want to deal with mud season or potential ice and snow, then plan some cool southwestern trips for the spring. Um, it's such a perfect time to go because if you wait until even like late May, it's going to be super hot. So if you don't want to just be sweating like crazy and also kind of fighting like the summer vacation, crowds hit those up in the spring months and it's the perfect time to go. 1s Okay, I think we've covered everything, so I hope that this was helpful as your little guide to Colorado Spring. Um, if you're anything like me and you start to just feel so stir crazy and kind of sick of doing the winter activities, you're ready to hike. These trails that I've recommended are going to be really great places to start, and just keep those tips in mind if you are hitting the trails. Remember to leave no trace and I hope you guys have an awesome hiking season this spring. If you are looking to start getting in shape for some of your hikes, if you're just feeling like, oh man, I know I'm going to be sucking wind on the trails this year. I haven't really been putting in my training this winter. Um, I've got you covered. I have some awesome fit for hiking guides for different ability levels. You can start with a free week, so I will link that in the show notes if you want to just kind of see what it's all about, but they're meant to be done at home. All you need are some dumbbells, so it makes it really easy to just get started. And it makes all the difference in your confidence and your strength and abilities. When you show up on the trails this spring and summer. Okay guys, thanks so much for tuning in and I will see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Ponytail Underscore. On a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on a trail.com. Happy and healthy trails.