Hike 93 2020

September 26 - Fall in Colorado

Similar to last weekends adventure, we went on the hunt for more fall colors. We were looking for a somewhat short hike closer to Fort Collins and stumbled upon this trail. Due to the amount of aspens on this trail, I knew it would be a busy one. The trailhead parking lot only fit a dozen or so cars, therefore we set out early in order to secure a spot. We left home at 4:50am and arrived at the trailhead around 6:30am, the sun had yet to come up so we waited a few extra minutes before heading out on the trail. We were lucky to arrive when we did because 15 minutes later the parking lot was already full so people had to go to the lower overflow lot (over half of the spots were taken by overnight backpackers).

Once on the trail, there were yellow aspens everywhere, around every turn you’d hear me say “wow, it’s so pretty, I’m taking another picture of the dogs” so it took us much longer to complete the hike than it should have. Our plan for this hike was to loop around a meadow which was a little over 2 miles each way.

After about 2 miles we reached the meadow which was surrounded by hundreds of yellow aspen.

We spent some time in the meadow taking numerous pictures of the dogs and various colors. We then made our way back down and at this point the trail was teeming with people. We’re fortunate that Maxi and Zeus are very well-behaved passing people and dogs on trail, even if the other dogs are barking/growling or lunging towards them, and despite the trail being busy we were able to enjoy it’s beauty. Once back at the trailhead there were cars lined up waiting for spots, cars parked illegally (with tickets), and hundreds more waiting to pay for an entrance pass. People are crazy about fall in Colorado that’s for sure, and another reason why we get out on the trails early to have it to ourselves for a little while.

We hiked a total of 4.5 miles with 900 ft elevation.