Hildebrand Ranch Park - a new park in Jefferson County Open Space

Looking up at a really cool entwined tree

Jefferson County has been busy in the last two years creating new trails and parks for residents; North Table Mountain has a new trailhead and facilities, Clear Creek Canyon is being developed and Hildebrand Ranch has been created.   Hildebrand Ranch is an Open Space Park for bikes, hikers, and equestrian riders in South Jefferson County between Chatfield Reservoir and Deer Creek Canyon Park.  The land was acquired by Jefferson County in 2001 and began creating the park shortly after, the parking lot is new and very nice well maintained with a brick parking lot instead of concrete; there is a port-o-pot, and good trail maps. 

It didn't take me long to decide what trail to hike yesterday morning, I knew I had to hike somewhere south of the metro area because I needed to stop by a friends house in the area.  I jumped on the Jefferson County website to check out their park map and noticed this new park between Deer Creek and South Valley; it stood out to me because I didn't recall it being there last year.  After asking my friend Laura who lives in the area, I found out that the trailhead was new, and she had noticed the parking lot being built recently. 

New Years Resolution to loose weight? Take a Hike; here's a list of trails for you.

Royal Arch, Boulder.  A great hike for any season!

Did you make a New Years Resolution to loose weight or become more healthy and active?  It's already 3 weeks into January, are you keeping up with your resolution?  I sure haven't been very good at it this year.  I thought you might need some inspiration as well;  so here is a list of trails in the Front Range area that are great to hike in the winter; on many of these trails you can accomplish hiking to a peak, an arch, a rim and lots more.  Not only is hiking a great outdoor activity, it gets your heart pumping and makes you feel great; plus you get the change to see amazing Colorado scenery, especially in the winter.

Here is a list of some of my favorite places to hike that are great during any season, but the winter season offers less crowded trails and a spectacular winter wonderland after a newly fallen snow; or this being Colorado it will often provide you with a sunny day in the 60s.  The Front Range offers numerous place to hike year round, but I am the kind of person who would rather hike to a peak, point of interest, or at best I'd prefer to hike a loop trail rather than an out and back.  One of my favorite mountains on the Front Range is Bear Peak which is west of Boulder.  Standing on the summit provides you with incredible views of the Continental Divide Mountains to the west, Indian Peaks Wilderness, Rocky Mountain National Park, and James Peak

Green Mountain Summit, 6,800ft - And a pack of coyotes

Bright Blue Colorado Sky; photo on etsy

On Friday, I really needed to get outside and hike; I had been cooped up in the house all week working on a new line of hats and hiking belts for my website, but what I really needed was to get outside and try them out.  
It was a balmy day in January, but very windy, so I decided that I'd stay close to home and head over to Green Mountain.  North Green Mountain is visible from my front deck, and I can see numerous trails on the north side of the mountain, but I haven't driven through the neighborhoods to locate those trails on the mountainside before.  I decided Friday was the day, and I drove south across 6th Ave, and up into the neighborhoods on the North side of Green Mountain in search of the access to the Open Space. 
After driving around for just a short time, my trail finding skills proved successful, I found the neighborhood access which connects with all of the trails visible on the north side of the mountain; stepped out of the car into the wind and decided that I'd hike to the top today! 

Snowshowing at Herman's Gulch, Silver Plume, Colorado

Views of I-70 below, looking west

All last week, I had been planning our next snowshoeing hike; the weather is supposed to get bad today, Sunday, so we had to hike on Saturday.   Then Saturday morning came and instead of getting up early and getting our day started, we managed to sleep in past 9am, and then made a leisurely breakfast, making it out the door by 12 noon!  I still wanted to snowshoe, even though it was nearly 60 degrees in Golden and we could have hiked on a beautiful January day.  The weather was still warm and nice in the mountains, said our SUV's gauge, until we hit Georgetown, the sun was hidden by ominous clouds, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees; it's snowshoe time!   

Snowshoeing in Clear Creek County. In search of snow on a warm Christmas Day.

Glittery snow sparkling in the sun

I have been dreaming of a white Christmas since September, when we decided we would stay in Colorado this year for the holidays instead of going 'home' to Michigan as we usually do.  Unfortunately for me, the Front Range didn't get a drop of snow, and in fact, it was in the mid 50s with sun and I was hot in my sweatshirt and jeans taking the dogs for a walk.  Josh and I decided since the snow wasn't going to find us, we were going to find the snow, and we drove into the mountains on I-70 west in search of some snowshoeing weather.  It wasn't hard to find a lot of snow about 35 minutes west of Golden, the mountains got slammed with a storm that measured in feet.  We drove to the Bakerville Exit off I-70 and there was plenty of snow on the south side of the highway to snowshoe on the Bakerville/Loveland trail that spans 5 miles.  It's popular in the winter for cross country skiing, snowshoeing and even some winter hiking.  In the summer, this is popular for mountain bikers and hikers. 

Grant Terry Park, Golden Colorado, Jefferson County

New bridge crossing Clear Creek

It has been weeks since I posted, shame on me; and I also haven't hiked much in the past month due to the busy holiday season for my business, but I am grateful for that.   Things are slowing down a little now that most of the holiday shopping is done and I am trying to get back into my routine of hiking (or snowshoeing) each week. 

This weekend, Josh and I went on a short hike just inside Clear Creek Canyon at a new Jefferson County Open Space called the Grant Terry Park.  The park was constructed when the new pedestrian bridge was built across Clear Creek Canyon giving access to the east side of the river.  The area then was made into a park with access to the river, and some trails on the west side of Lookout Mountain. 

Cub Creek Trailhead, Evergreen Colorado; A Hike through the Pine Forest and getting into the spirit!

Single aspen in a field, with pine all around

It's been about a week and a half since I hiked North Table Mountain and I had been promising the dogs all week I'd take them; Friday came and I had to fulfill my promise.  Lately, I haven't really had the desire to hike, maybe it's because the winter is here and there are no more colorful aspen leaves, the high peaks aren't very accessible or safe (by myself in the winter), and our 10th peak over 14,000 feet late this summer was Mt. Elbert; Colorado's tallest mountain and the second tallest in the continental USA.  So, I am kind of feeling like what else is out there? And what can I do in the winter that will be new and interesting when the higher peaks aren't accessible safely?  
I forced myself to get into the car, and by 9:30am I was heading up I-70 toward Evergreen and thinking to myself that I wasn't really in the 'holiday' spirit this year and I didn't really want to hike.  Then I thought of my former co-worker who used to listen to KOZI 101.1 all through the holiday season in our small office and they play only Christmas music at this time of year.  While I was very sick of it by the time Christmas rolled around, it was nice now and then, so I turned it on only to hear some cheezy Gloria Estefan songs and I nearly changed it but some jazz Christmas music came on, and suddenly I was getting excited for the upcoming holidays and for the hike. 

North Table Mountain, Golden Colorado, A New Jeffco Trailhead!

Lone tree on the top of Table Mountain;

It has been a week or so since I have made it out to the trails due to my business picking up for the holiday season; and while I am glad for the increase in business, I miss hiking!  Even though I didn't have much time last week, I made sure to get outside at least one day and I combined it with a photo shoot for my new hiking cowl The Peak, getting two things done at once! 
I have been eager to hit up North Table Mountain because Jefferson County Open Space has been busy creating a new trailhead with lots of parking, a bathroom and even a trail map with mileage to take with while hiking.   There are two loops on the mesa, and a couple of other side trails for a total 7+ miles of hiking and biking paths.  Now, this trail has always been on North Table Mountain, but it was never an "official" trailhead with bathrooms or maintained trails.  This hike will take you all over the top of North Table Mountain with views of the Flatirons, City of Denver, Golden and Applewood.  There are numerous animals on Table Mountain as well, so keep your eyes peeled for deer, coyotes, bunnies, foxes and even elk; all which I have seen at one time or another on this mountain! 

A hike to Ice Lake and two waterfalls, San Juan Mountains, Silverton Colorado

Looking back at the mountainside

The last hike we did on our San Juan road trip was a hike that started next to the S. Mineral Campground where we were staying, called the hike to Ice Lake.  There was no mileage on the sign, so Josh and I had no idea how far this hike would be, and the rain was obviously going to come in, but we continued to hike up in hopes to reach the lake anyway.  After a short while of hiking, the trail crosses over the river and we completely missed the left turn across the river and we continued up the steep side of the mountainside next to the waterfall.  We then realized this trail was a short social trail just to view the waterfall, which is one of the bigger waterfalls in Colorado that I have seen.  I snapped numerous waterfall pics and then we hiked back down the steep mountainside to find the trail that we had lost.  It didn't take long before we realized that the trail crosses the larger creek/river and we skipped across the rocks to get to the other side. 

South Mineral Campground, Silverton Colorado camping, Road Trip

Morning sun on the dew at campsite; on etsy

The last two nights of our road trip were to be spent somewhere between Silverton and Ouray or in Ouray at a campground or campsite.  But since we had such a hard time finding campgrounds/sites during the beginning of the trip, I was concerned were doomed to spending another day in the car.  We drove from our campsite that we vacated earlier in the day and headed north on 550 through the dramatic town of Silverton with the huge mountains surrounding the teeny town and continued up the million dollar highway (550) to find a campsite.  Just past Silverton we noticed a national forest campground sign pointing us to turn left onto Co Rd 7, we decided to camp down this road, no matter what, just to get us out of the car!  While the scenery on dirt road CO Rd 7 was pretty, it wasn't amazing like Colorado's scenery can be.  The road follows Lime Creek and there are numerous dispersed campsites along the road and beside the river; there are also two small free campgrounds on this road just after your turn.  However, none of the sites looked good to us, so we continued down the bumpy, but easily drivable, dirt road past a fork in the road, and ended at the South Mineral Campground.  By this time it was getting dark fast, the campground was pretty nice, settled in the valley between the mountains and next to the river.  Many of the campsites were under the ponderosa pine, other sites more out in the field; there were 3 loops in the large campground, and the bathrooms were open for use in mid-October, which was a big plus for me.  We found a campsite in the last loop near the front of the campground, there were two other campers in other loops at the campground, but it was far from crowded and we were happy to have that solitude.