I just got back from 8 days in Colorado with my hiking buddy Courtney! We had lots of adventures, hiked lots of miles, and accomplished several goals.
Our flights got changed at the last minute so we actually flew separately and met at baggage claim in Denver Saturday evening. From there we drove to our hotel by the airport and got settled in.
The next day was just a free day to check out the area, so we went to Stanley Marketplace in Aurora, CO and had fun walking around sampling foods and checking out stores.
We left Monday morning for our next destination--Leadville, CO--but on the way, we stopped at Herman Gulch to do our first high altitude hike! It starts at about 10,000ft elevation and ends at an alpine lake at about 12,000ft. Not a difficult hike persay, but the altitude was definitely a challenge. We ended up hiking about 6.9 miles.
After that hike we headed to Leadville, CO (highest city in the US!) for a stay at my first hostel! "Inn the Clouds". We shared a bunkbed in the girls dorm.
We mainly stayed in this town for a couple days to help our bodies acclimate to the higher altitude. The next day was pretty glum and rainy, but we still walked all around the town on most of the Mineral Belt Trail. We did 8.1 miles on that.
On Wednesday at 4:30am we woke up and grabbed our bags to hit our first 14er--Mt Sherman! A completely unmarked trailhead and unmarked trail. For the most part it was easy to follow the trail except for on the rocky cliffside. The weather was clear, but there were still clouds towards the top, and a very cold wind! The temp was in the 30s at the top and we were mostly in the clouds until we turned around to descend.
We did a total of 6.4 miles with an elevation gain of 2,507ft. Woot!
After checking out of our hostel, we headed SE for our next stop in Colorado Springs. My second hostel, "ColoRADo Adventure Hostel". This time we snagged a private room! They also included free bike rental, so we took advantage of that and biked around the town about 5 miles that evening.
The next day we headed out to hike Garden of the Gods for the afternoon. There are many different trails there, and we pieced together a loop and did about 4.8 miles.
View of Pikes Peak
We worked up a big appetite so we stopped in at Sonic and loaded up!!
After lunch we decided to check out Pulpit Rock, which is an open space park in Colorado Springs. All pretty unofficial trails, we followed a steep one up to the top, and actually climbed up on the very top of the highest rocks you see here!
View from the top looking down at the trail.
For that evening we headed to a vintage arcade bar Supernova for dinner and video game fun!
The next morning we hit the road again after breakfast on our way back to Denver, but on our way we stopped at Alderfer Three Sisters park for our last Colorado hike! We made a loop there and did about 6.4 miles total with some pretty mountain and meadow views.
After that we headed to our last hotel in west Denver. The next day was a rest day, and just checked out some local places around us. For lunch we found another vintage arcade bar called 1Up Arcade and they had even more games!
We walked around the mall, then had dinner at a local brewery right up the street. The whole time we were in Denver, the sky was super hazy from wildfire smoke around the country. Zero views of the mountains from the city.
Our flights back to Buffalo landed without issues, and I am home for a whole 12 hours before heading out ONE LAST TIME tomorrow morning for my last week working at camp. Whew!
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