Hikes and Trails in Colorado

Date Climbed: July 2, 2023 Trailhead: Fall Creek TH Trailhead Access: 2wd carefully driven Halo Ridge is an absolute must-do route. You get to visit the Notch Mountain Cabin, bag a centennial, and get an epic view of the cross on Mt. of the Holy Cross. And the traverse itself remains class 2 and it…

Date Climbed: July 1, 2023 Trailhead: Fall Creek TH Trailhead Access: 2wd carefully driven It was Kate’s idea to get Whitney peak from the north, which wasn’t already written about in any of the trip reports we studied. The route is mostly trailed, all the way up to pass, and from there is a class…

Date Climbed: June 18, 2023 Trailhead: La Plata Trailhead Access: 2wd It’s couloir season, so I have to do couloirs, right? We were on the trail at 4:00am to try to get Grand Central before rocks started falling off, but looking back I’m not sure it was early enough. The initial part of the hike…

Date Climbed: June 25, 2023 Trailhead: Winfield, CO Trailhead Access: 2wd Getting these two peaks together is a shorter distance, but steep day. For me, the highlight was the traverse over to Ervin peak, which was a pleasant class 3 ridgeline. We started from Winfield, CO, because I didn’t want to drive up 390A. I…

Date Climbed: June 24, 2023 Trailhead: Winfield, CO Trailhead Access: 2wd The Winfield Traverse. A big day, but well-worth it. We started near the extremely tiny town of Winfield, CO, because I didn’t want to have to drive my car up the 4WD 390 road to the Winfield TH. There are several ways I saw…

Date Climbed: June 11, 2023 Trailhead: West Peak Trailhead Trailhead Access: 2wd (road may have shallow ruts in spring but still 2wd) West Spanish peak is one of those orphaned peaks that stands alone (except for East Spanish peak, a 12er right next door). Its solo prominence makes it exceptionally enticing to climb; you can…

Date Climbed: May 27, 2023 Trailhead: Maroon Lake TH Trailhead Access: 2WD Gerry Roach’s description of Thunder Pyramid in his Colorado 13ers book makes it both terrifying and mystifying. Discouraging on one hand, but enticing on the other. I decided that if I ever did Thunder Pyramid, it would be in the spring when we…

Length: 3.7 miles round trip Elevation Gain: 650 ft Difficulty: Easy Trailhead: Patrick House Trailhead Family Friendly? Yes Genesee mountain is an unassuming landmark tucked back behind the front range peaks near Golden. This hike in particular is pretty flat and easy (relative to other Colorado hikes), and you can just skip the peak all…

Length: 6.46 miles round trip Elevation Gain: 1709 ft Difficulty: Hard Trailhead: Burro Trail Head Family Friendly? Older kids, yes Windy Peak is an absolutely underrated hike in the Colorado front range. Only about 45 minutes drive from Denver, it’s still more secluded and less trafficked than some of the close hikes. The trail is…

Date Climbed: April 17, 2023 Trailhead: Gibson Creek Trailhead Trailhead Access: High Clearance (2wd TH only .3 miles away). Spread Eagle peak is a 13er in the Sangre de Cristo range sort of close to the Crestone group. It’s 13,436′ tall and like Marble Mountain, is a good winter/early spring 13er because it has a…