Early Start on the Colorado Trail

In just one week (June 18th) I will be embarking on the Colorado Trail. I cannot wait to start exploring all across this great state and to sleep out under the stars every night. While I am so excited to get out there I hope I'm not jumping the gun too much. Starting the trail in July will usually lead to a snow free trip but unfortunately my plans called for a slightly earlier start date. I hope that I am not regretting this decision when I am covering some of my first high alpine passes.

Steep slopes in Rocky Mt NP

Sarah and I already got a little taste of some of the snow conditions on our trip to Rocky Mountain NP last week when we were hiking at just 10,000 ft. There was no snow to be seen when we first started and we set off in T-shirts and shorts but by the time we made it up to our campsite there were snowpiles all over. We continued hiking up some trails to the higher lakes and soon all the ground was covered in snow. Things got a bit tricky where we were hiking along some steep valleys where you only had the footprints of previous hikers notched into the snow. Slipping down one of those hills certainly would not have been a fun experience. We braved some of the steep slopes but by the time we neared the lake we realized without some of the proper snow gear it simply wasn't worth risking it to keep heading up and we decided to turn back to our camp. While that was no problem on our small weekend trip I certainly hope I don't get to the point where I need to turn around along the Colorado as that would not be fun. I already know some friends who are thru-hiking the Continental Divide Trail this year (which overlaps with the Colorado Trail in parts of Colorado) who had to skip ahead to avoid some of the snow up in the mountains of southern Colorado.

The lucky part is that going from Denver to Durango I will hit the snowiest peaks late in my trip after all of the snow is gone. Looking at the current snow levels I'm pretty confident the trail will be clear of snow by the time I get to the San Juans. So while I have my eye on the snow conditions and weather these last few days before my trip I'm quite confident that I won't run into too may troubles. So as I make my final preparations for the hike I think I will be leaving my ice axe and crampons behind. While I have done my research I hope that I have prepared myself for any weather and trail conditions Colorado wants to send my way.