During the week of July 10th, both of our kids were at overnight camps so Kathy and I took the opportunity to do some hiking along the Front Range. This is a recap of the highlights of all of the places we got to see during those hikes.
Monday July 10, 2017
7.8 miles
2085' vertical
This was my first taste of the Hessie / 4th of July TH area. Beautiful hike up to Arapaho Pass behind South Arapaho Peak, and up to Lake Dorothy at the foot of Mt. Neva. Great views of the backs of some of the Indian Peaks.
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| Mt. Neva from Arapaho Pass |
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| Caribou Lake from Arapaho Pass |
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| Lake Dorothy |
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| Back of the Indian Peaks |
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| South Arapaho Peak behind the 4th of July Mine |
Tuesday July 11, 2017
12.7 miles
2101' vertical
This area is accessed from the Colorado River trail head on the west side of RMNP. We had taken this trail about 7 miles to Lulu City last year, but this year we wanted to check out the rock formations in the canyon known as "Little Yellowstone". We hiked up to the Grand Ditch, about a mile away from Poudre Pass. Very serene and wooded area.
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| Looking south back down the canyon we hiked. |
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| Grand Ditch |
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| Kathy checking the scenery from a safe distance |
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| Little Yellowstone rock formation |
Wednesday July 12, 2017
6.5 miles
1744' vertical
The weather this day called for rain, so we opted to stay a little lower and shorter as we visited Horsetooth Rock. Very well maintained open space, with quite a bit of climbing and a fun, scrambly summit of Horsetooth Rock itself.
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| View to the southwest |
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| The summit |
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| Scramble to reach the summit |
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| At the top of Horsetooth Falls |
Thursday July 13, 2017
14.9 miles
3461' vertical
This is a long hike out of the Wild Basin area of RMNP. We initially had planned to go to the first Lion Lake, but the weather was perfect and the scenery even better that we made our way up to the second Lion Lake and beyond that to Snowbank Lake. Mt. Alice was before us for much of the upper portion of this hike, and the back of Chiefs Head Peak made a wall to our north. This ended up being one of my favorite lake hikes of all time.
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| Lion Lake #1 |
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| Mt. Alice behind Lion Lake #1 |
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| Trio Falls, drainage from Lion Lake #2 to #1 |
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| Lion Lake #2 with Chiefs Head Peak in the background |
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| Snowbank Lake below Chiefs Head Peak |
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| A couple big snow fields to contend with near the top |
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| Looking back down on Lion Lake #1 |
Friday July 14, 2017
11.0 miles
2356' vertical
This was our second hike in the Hessie / 4th of July area, this time from the lower Hessie trail head. Pretty muddy and steep hike through a lot of forest, taking us just below the divide. Nothing terribly spectacular about this one, but it was still good to check it out.
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| Woodland Lake from Skyscraper Reservoir |
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| Skyscraper Reservoir |
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| Skyscraper Peak |
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| Looking south towards Rollins Pass |
Saturday July 15, 2017
3.4 miles
1315' vertical
This was our last day of Front Range hiking. Kathy had never done Mt. Sanitas before, and I had been looking at hitting the summit of Dakota Ridge for my Boulder County summit quest, so we headed to Boulder for a short finisher climb of these two points. We climbed up Sanitas from the standard route and came down the very steep East Ridge over to Dakota Ridge. Short but sweet hike.
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| Mt. Sanitas from Dakota Ridge |
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| Selfie from the summit of Mt. Sanitas |
In total, nearly 60 miles of hiking with almost 12,000 vertical feet climbed across the Front Range. It was a great week to see lots of new areas, and there is so much more to be seen. Can't wait to get back out for more. :)
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