Legs & Lungs - Big Hikes and Backpacking

Another great one for Spring. This time we've got a 15 mile loop through Hall Ranch Open Space that takes us all the way to Button Rock Reservoir and back. Last year at this same time the meadows were waking up and turning a beautiful emerald green. Definitely worth a repeat.

We'll meet at the main parking lot (Bitterbrush) and then start up the Night Hawk trail. Then it's Button Rock for some terrific views, followed by Sleepy Lion and finally Professor's Ranch that takes us across the dyke itself. Have you ever seen the reservoir up close? A bit of dirt road walk away from the dyke and Sleepy Lion again take us to some unnamed trails to get back up top. Last, Nelson and Bitter Brush lead down to the cars.

Peak bagging is starting early this year! Let's head down to the beautiful (and hopefully snow-free) Spanish Peaks rising high above the dusty expanse of the San Isabel National Forest in Southern Colorado. This will be a 1-night 2-day trip with a restaurant meal in La Veta followed by car camping at the Sunday trailhead.

Saturday - Let's find a good place to meet early in the morning, maybe 7am. There's an RTD park n ride at Park Meadows, for example. From there it's about a 2hr45min drive to the lower trailhead of East Spanish Peak. Plan to walk about 2.1 miles each way on the bumpy road before reaching the official 4wd trailhead. This will make it a 14 mile, 4,700 vertical hike to the top at 12,688 ft. The trail will peter out and leave us with some scree and rock to walk on up the ridge, but it shouldn't get technical. After completing the hike, we'll drive back down to the town of La Veta and get a hot meal somewhere. Looks like there's several palatable options. Then we'll drive up to Cordova Pass Campground where Sunday's hike begins.

RMNP's Deer Mountain and the surrounding trails are perfect for a late May hike with some great views of the snowy divide as we make our way through green meadows and sparse pine forest. We can do a perfect loop up and over the summit with some additional mileage tacked on at the end. This will be a respectable 14 miles with 3,000 ft of gain. Join us for a walk, talk, and chance to meet new people, and let's enjoy the beautiful Springtime in our national park!

We'll meet at Boulder's Justice Center and carpool up to the roadside parking on 36 just past the turnoff for Bear Lake Road. Our counterclockwise loop starts out on the Buck Creek trail heading along the southeast base of Deer Mountain for a mile and a half. Then the Deer Mountain trail climbs a steep 2,000 feet to the summit. We'll continue along the trail back down the west side to the main trailhead at the 36/34 junction. Cross the road and take the Upper Beaver Meadows / Mountain trails for about 4 miles where they meet the Ute trail (that comes down from Trail Ridge road). From here, we'll loop back to the east for the final 2.5 miles back to the cars. Should be a nice little tour of some trails I've never been on. If you've never done a hike with Legs & Lungs before, this might be the perfect introduction.