Moffat Tunnel East Portal-Recommendations

[bigredmachine]

I'm going to be camping with the family over the weekend up in the mammoth gulch area and was hoping to get away for about 5-6 hours. I've never hiked in the area at all and was hoping to get some suggestions. I was considering James Peak from the East Portal but it looks like this might be about 12 miles rt. Id really like to get up and do some ridges possibly along the Divide that don't exceed Class 3 probably more in 6-8 miles rt. Is my best bet starting at the East Portal or going up further on the Corona Pass rd? Any suggestions would be much appreciated

Corey

[Kojones]

It's been a long while since I've been up there, so take that for what it's worth. I went snowshoeing one winter up along a trail that goes to the right of the portal. I got all the way up to what I remember to be a frozen lake/tarn and it wasn't that long or tough of a hike. The hike from that whole opening area up to some ridges could be done, or just some exploring around there would be great. I definitely wanted to explore more on snowshoes, but remember wanting to get back for some reason. Good thing I did because I got back to the portal just in time to see a train approach and enter the tunnel. That was pretty memorable.

Kojones

[bergsteigen]

I've done the summer hikes up to Crater Lakes and up to Arapaho Lakes when I first moved back to Colorado and wanted to get back into altitude shape. So I haven't gone up to the ridge from the regular trails before without snow. But they are beautiful trails with lots of wildflowers and fall under the couple hours category.