This is a nice, close to Denver hike! Parking lot is decent but can still fill up quickly.
Very little, as in no shade. Plan accordingly
5.8 miles ( or more if you forget to stop once you hit red rocks amphitheater)
1100 foot elevation gain.
Suman and I decided to try this trail on a post snow saturday! We waited till about 10am for the sun to come out and clear the ice from the roads and then headed out to enjoy the views of denver sprinkled in white.
The parking lot was pretty bare, which was great, we put on our spikes and headed out!
The trail has some nice options for looping to not always repeat what you did.
We enjoyed the views of denver, of red rocks and we got some mileage on our boots! I learned that I will throw away the socks I used and only go with full wool for hiking and skip the inserts!
The hike was interesting in the snow as some of the paths were not clear, but you can’t really get lost here! Next time we will add on and do the full loop across on dinosaur ridge!
By the time we returned most of the paths were pure red mud, so bring something to put your boots in if you go when it is wet!