Alderfer Three Sisters Park and Open Space, Evergreen Colorado

Hiking with a baby is part of our lifestyle now, and I am constantly trying to find a good hike that I haven't blogged about or visited lately, which is not too difficult making it comfortable to carry Magnolia.  This weekend we visited Alderfer Three Sisters, a park that I have frequented many times, but oddly, had never blogged about.  This park has over 10 miles of trails, some in the pine forest and others with views of the surrounding foothills but the park is most popular for its rock formations.  The formations are named the Three Sisters and The Brother.  This weekend we hiked the Sisters Loop and then continued along the Ponderosa Trail back to the car.  In total we hiked 2.5 miles and it took us about 1.5 -2 hours of moderately slow hiking with a few stops along the way to nurse the baby, take photos and to let the dogs sniff around.  

Lookout Mountain, Boettcher Mansion; a snowy hike on a sunny January day

Clearly, I didn't hike this trail very recently; it was actually hiked in January 2012, but as a busy mama with a 2 month old baby, I didn't get a chance to blog about it until now.  But, its worth the write-up, so here it is!  The trailhead starts at the Boettcher Mansion and Nature Center on the top of Lookout Mountain; which is worth the visit even if you don't like to hike.  The mansion was built as a summer home in 1917 by a prominent business man Charles Boettcher and the property was donated to the Jefferson County Open Space in the late 60s.  Its a beautiful, rustic property on the top of the mountain and is a great place to visit in the springtime with all the wildflowers in the area. 

Lookout Mountain offers a great number of trails and several places to park to pick up these trails.  We decided to hike here because it got us up into the mountains, a little bit, and it's a trail that I hadn't hiked before. 
It was a bright and sunny day in Golden as we drove up Lookout Mountain, and we quickly realized that there would be deep snow along the trail and I hoped it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience for my sister and brother in law, who didn't bring their hiking boots to Colorado this trip.  However, they braved the snow, and we saw some elk, so it was worth the wet feet and knee deep snow drifts. 

Centennial Cone Park; back to hiking and blogging!

I've taken quite a hiatus from blogging and I miss it terribly.  The past 6 months have been the busiest of my life; my husband and I welcomed a baby girl to our family in November, Magnolia Gwen.  She is a fun, feisty little girl and we have hiked several times since her arrival but I just haven't had the time to write!  Because my time is more limited, my trail reviews are going to be a little shorter; the same great information and directions, with less text and more beautiful photos.  Some of the hikes might be repeats from earlier in the blog, but hiking with a child presents a whole new set of challenges; I am not able to hike as long and I have to be flexible regarding her mood, but it feels great to get outside and share my love of the trail with her.  I'd love to hear from other hiking families out there regarding which pack you use, or how you handle the trail with kids?  Please leave a comment! 

Mayhem Gulch Trail, part of the Clear Creek Canyon Park System

Mayhem Gulch, Clear Creek Canyon

About a year ago, I was driving up highway 6 in Clear Creek Canyon and noticed that the Open Space workers were building a parking lot for a new trailhead about 9 miles up the Canyon from Golden.  It wasn't completed and so I was not able to hike it back then, but I always remembered it was there and knew that Jefferson County Open Space was adding more trails in the Canyon, so I decided to head back this September to see if it was completed.  And it was!  Complete with a large parking lot across the road from the river, restrooms and trail maps that show this trail system meets up with the Centennial Cone Park trails in Golden Gate Canyon and there are numerous miles of trails for bikers and hikers here!

The Manitou Incline; Colorado Springs - One of the most intense trails I have hiked.

I have heard lots of things about The Incline, a 0.9 mile hike up the old cog railroad which gains 2100 feet in elevation; its hot, its steep, its hard, its crazy, its feels endless; and its all of those and more!  I kept thinking, how hard can it really be?  It's just under a mile to get to the top, I can do anything for a mile; but it was definitely an intense trail that was so steep in some places that it gave me vertigo to stop and look down and I am not afraid of heights.  The trail reminded me of a roller coaster, when you are looking over the top and you can't see the track in front of you just the track at the bottom because it's so steep; that's exactly what The Incline is like.  
The Incline is a favorite trail for fitness buffs who frequent the trail as part of an exercise regimen, some people will even run up the trail and back down it as well.  Most people however, take the 4 mile Barr trail down the mountain instead.  The entire trail provides amazing views of the foothills and as far into the distance as the eye can see and as weather permits.  

Cupid Mountain, 13,117 ft, Colorado's 555th highest peak

Views and wild daisies in bloom at elevation

 Hiked July 29th, at 27 weeks pregnant.  

One of my goals with pregnancy was to hike a peak at least once before the baby comes, and last week I decided that it was time to do one.  I chose Cupid Mountain, at 13,117 feet; which begins at the top of Loveland Pass on the Continental Divide.   The hike is around 3 miles round trip and you can make the hike into a loop by hiking to the top of the un-named 12,000 peak then turning right and hiking over to Cupid.  Many people curse Cupid as the "hump" on their way to hike Grizzly Peak, but it's actually a ranked peak, 555th highest in Colorado.  
This peak is an easy hike to the top; there are some steep sections, but I knew that I had cell signal the entire hike and there were plenty of people nearby if something happened but I felt confident in my pregnant body that I could do the trail just fine, and it was a beautiful day as I hiked up to the top.  I kept thinking that someday the baby will hear this story of it's mama hiking over 13,000 feet and I wondered if this kiddo will think its cool or weird; hopefully the former?  

Osprey Trail on the South End of Gross Reservoir, Boulder Colorado

Views from just up the hill at the start of hike

Hiked July 21, 2011, at 25.5 weeks pregnant


This summer I wanted to explore Gross Reservoir, an area in Coal Creek Canyon and West of Boulder; the reservoir is very scenic and there are several trails surrounding it.  A few weeks ago I hiked from the scenic overlook on the opposite side of the canyon down to the raging river, you can read my trip report here.  This hike I went to the southwest part of the reservoir to the Osprey Point boat launch and trailhead.  From there I took the 1.5 mile trail all the way until it dead ends at South Boulder Creek where the river meets the reservoir.  At the start of my hike, a two gals came over to ask me where the 'cliff jumping' was on the reservoir, unfortunately, I had no idea where people cliff jump from, but I would like to know so that I can go sometime.  However, the reservoir is part of the Denver Water supply and does not allow swimming, which makes the water even more tempting in my opinion. If you know where this cliff jumping occurs, please post a comment!  This is a great place to canoe or kayak as well as hike and picnic.  

Cataract Campground, White River National Forest - A Small Campground with great hikes nearby

Campground and site #1 with best views of surrounding mtns

Camped over Fourth of July weekend, 2011, 23 weeks pregnant.  


Even though pregnancy has slowed me down this summer, I was determined to camp at least once this season; even with the holidays crowds we hit the road to camp north of Silverthorne Colorado.  After looking into the Green Mountain Res area, I found a more secluded campground southwest of the reservoir which had lots of trails nearby and hoped we could find a site there.  We drove out Friday afternoon, arriving at the campground near 6pm and there was just one spot left!  We felt very fortunate to get a site, although it ended up being mosquito infested and made for a weekend of swatting bugs and spending more time in the camper than usual; but it was worth it!  

Lower Cataract Lake Loop/Creek, North of Silverthorne Colorado

Lower Cataract Lake, Colorado

Hiked July 2nd, 2011; 23 weeks pregnant. 

While I haven't posted many hikes this summer, it doesn't mean that I haven't been hiking!  In fact, I have several posts to catch up on and they are good ones! 

Over the weekend of the Fourth of July, Josh, the dogs and I decided to go camping.  I wanted to camp at least once while pregnant this summer.  We decided to head North of Silverthorne Colorado to the Green Mountain Reservoir area; we didn't exactly know where we wanted to camp, but I wanted to check out the Lower Cataract Lake area, which is just southwest of the Res.  We drove up the bumpy dirt road 3 miles to the Cataract Campground and hiked just up the road at the Cataract Creek/Lake Trailhead.   Josh and I hiked the loop which is moderate/easy and approximately 2+ miles around the loop; located in the Eagles Nest Wilderness, White River National Forest. 

Warren Gulch Trailhead, for hikers and bikers; Idaho Springs, CO

Hiked this trail June 30, 2011, at 22 weeks pregnant. 
Summer hiking this season has kept me closer to home and I have been exploring Clear Creek County trails which give me a little bit of a higher altitude hike, but without the crowds of Open Space trails.  There are numerous trails in Clear Creek County that can be found on their website here. 

I hiked Warren Gulch last week, and while the website gave good directions on how to get to the hike, they left out that there is no parking at the trailhead, the road is a dirt  single two track that continues up the Gulch with no place to turn around if another car comes, or if you want to turn back.  However, once I found the trail and parked, I did end up having a great hike.  It was just a little dicey to get there.