Great Fall hikes near Denver

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
Forum rules
  • This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
  • Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
  • Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
  • Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
    For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
Post Reply
User avatar
WhoDang
Posts: 20
Joined: 4/9/2010
14ers: 12  1 
13ers: 5
Trip Reports (0)
 

Great Fall hikes near Denver

Post by WhoDang »

Hello all, I'm looking for a great Fall hike to enjoy my first change of color in Colorado. I'm looking for something within a 2 hour drive from Denver.

I'm mostly interested in just seeing the fall colors but any lakes or waterfalls mixed in would be great.

I was thinking about something in summit county like the Mohawk Lake http://www.summitcountyexplorer.com/HIK ... 0Trail.htm but I'm not sure if there will be a strong display of color. Or Eaglesmere Lakes http://www.summitcountyexplorer.com/HIK ... 0Trail.htm

I plan on doing it sometime this week

Thanks for all your suggestions!

Nate
hatidua
Posts: 304
Joined: 5/12/2010
14ers: 18 
13ers: 2
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Great Fall hikes near Denver

Post by hatidua »

Regardless of location, I'd suggest you hurry. I was up in the James Peak Wilderness this weekend and it's more or less already finished there....and that's not all that high in terms of elevation. The leaves that remained were in the final stages and many of the aspen trees were bare.

The wind today probably took a fair number of leaves off as well :(
User avatar
Trudger
Posts: 49
Joined: 8/2/2010
14ers: 7 
13ers: 11
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Great Fall hikes near Denver

Post by Trudger »

I'll recommend the North Ben Tyler Trail, near Shawnee (just past Bailey on 285). My recollection of the trail's history is that a wildfire burned the area the trail goes through sometime around 1900, and the forest grew back with Aspens in place of the conifers. I drove by Saturday and Sunday and there were only 4-6 cars at the trailhead. It's not far until you get into the Aspens, but it's still a nice climb for a good workout. Didn't look to me like the leaves have peaked there, but I was driving and didn't get a great look. There was a lot of yellow.

Here's a recent thread about it.

http://www.backpacking.net/forum/ubbthr ... ber=138961" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
User avatar
Rich H
Posts: 483
Joined: 8/15/2007
14ers: 45  7 
13ers: 163
Trip Reports (0)
 

Re: Great Fall hikes near Denver

Post by Rich H »

try the Indian Peaks Wilderness - although the aspen aren't as big as on the west slope you can still see some amazing colours.
Attachments
Navajo3.JPG
Navajo3.JPG (77.06 KiB) Viewed 872 times
User avatar
DScott49
Posts: 48
Joined: 2/23/2010
14ers: 37 
Trip Reports (16)
 

Re: Great Fall hikes near Denver

Post by DScott49 »

10 days ago when I did Holy Cross the whole area up south of Vail on 24 was beautiful. Any of the trails up by Elbert or Massive should be great right now.

Dr. Dave
Dr. Dave

"Never measure the height of a mountain until you reach the top. Then you will see how low it was." Dag Hammarskjold
"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting. So... get on your way." Dr. Seuss
Post Reply