First 14er no car.

[elijah4000]

Looking to climb my first 14er next month but I'll be flying to Denver and I'm too young to rent a car.

I originally made this post on reddit, and I was directed here to ask if to hitch a ride with some people. I will be flying into Denver the 3rd week of August I have quite good fitness and experience scrambling and I'm really looking for something that will push me to my limits. Although I am happy to be doing any beautiful hikes in Colorado.

Additionally, what are the best campgrounds or hostels near good mountain ranges?

[sfreytag]

Quandary makes a great 1st 14er and can be done without a car. Take the Summit Express from the airport to Breck. Stay at The Bivvi Hostel in town. Its a pretty cool hostel with a hot tub and lots of other hikers (specifically CT thru hikers). Take the Quandary shuttle from Breck to the mountain. https://hikequandary.com/?doing_wp_cron ... 6259765625. Breck has a nice free bus system around town too. There is no scrambling on the standard route that the bus takes you to, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing for your first 14er. See how it goes on an easy one first.

[Chicago Transplant]

If the easy 14er leaves you wanting some scrambling, there are options for other peaks that are in Summit County and accessible via the free bus systems that are 12k or 13k peaks!

[Monte Meals]

^ "Stay at The Bivvi Hostel in town. "

While I have NO PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE

I've been told that the chicks staying at Bivi are (how should I say this) nice.

[kingshimmers]

Pikes Peak: take the RTD A line from DIA to Union Station, then you can take the Bustang South Line to Colorado Springs downtown terminal. From there, you can take the metro bus rout #3 to Manitou Springs where the Barr trail starts. It's a 1.5mile walk to the Barr trailhead from where the bus drops you off, or there's the Manitou Shuttle (can use the Manitou shuttle to get back to Manitou Springs when you finish too). You could also Uber/taxi to the Barr trailhead from elsewhere within Colorado Springs, which might give you a more flexible start time.

https://app.rtd-denver.com/route/A/sche ... nd&branch=
https://ridebustang.com/routes/south-line/
https://transit.coloradosprings.gov/busroutes
https://coloradosprings.gov/mountain-me ... ou-shuttle

[justiner]

I've started a list of a few ideas for hikes,

https://longmayyourange.com/car-free-ba ... n-coloado/

Hitching from town is really easy in the summer. Buena Vista, Salida, Leadville -- you'll have no trouble finding a friendly ride. Just got plucked off of Silver Creek TH back to town yesterday myself!

[kingshimmers]

And some other hikes that aren't 14ers, but do get you up into our big mountains and are accessible via public transit:

Take Bustang to Vail, take Vail's town shuttle busses to any of the following trailheads and their respective hikes:

• Booth Falls Trailhead, for Booth Falls and Booth Lake (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... th-lake--2)
• Pitkin Trailhead, for the Pitkin Lake Trail (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... lake-trail)
• Bighorn Trailhead, for the Bighorn Creek Trail (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... reek-trail)
• Gore Creek/Deluge Lake Trailhead (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/gore-lake and https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... lake-trail)

• https://ridebustang.com/routes/denver-avon/
• https://www.vail.gov/government/departm ... s-schedule

Take the RTD bus from DIA to Boulder, then take the RTD bus from Boulder to Nederland. There's a free shuttle that runs from Nederland to the Hessie Trailhead in the Indian Peaks Wilderness on weekends and holidays. Here are some hikes you could do from the Hessie Trailhead:

• https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... ssie-trail
• https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... lake-trail
• https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... lake-trail
• If you get there early in the morning, you could also hitchhike from the Hessie trailhead up to the 4th of July trailhead 4 miles further in, which has access to South Arapahoe Peak https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... cier-trail

• https://app.rtd-denver.com/route/AB1/sc ... nd&branch=
• https://app.rtd-denver.com/route/NB/sch ... nd&branch=
• https://bouldercounty.gov/open-space/pa ... d/#shuttle

You can ALSO take RTD to from DIA to Union Station in Denver, then Bustang from Union Station to Estes Park. From there, there is public transit into Rocky Mountain National Park (though you do need to buy park entrance passes for this).

• https://app.rtd-denver.com/route/A/sche ... nd&branch=
• https://ridebustang.com/routes/bustang-to-estes/
• https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/ ... ransit.htm
• https://www.nps.gov/places/rmnp-shuttle-routes.htm

And like others mentioned, Summit County (Breckenridge/Frisco/Silverthorne) has great public transit to trailheads (the Peak 1 trail even starts from the North Tenmile Trailhead at the Woodbridge stop):

• https://www.summitcountyco.gov/services ... trails.php
• https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colo ... ak-1-trail