Typically when people come to Colorado they want to climb something high. And it was no different for Sebastian when he came to visit me in June. Sebastian is from Munich, Germany and already has some hiking experience under his belt, but we were both still uncertain of how he would handle the transition from Boston to Colorado. Scott and I didn’t want to take him up a boring trail full of tourists, so we headed over to Idaho Springs to find something more interesting. Scott owns land up in the mountains outside of the town and has built himself a small cabin, which we stayed at for some glorified camping during the weekend. He even entertained us with some party tricks.

We trekked up St. Mary’s Glacier (located off of Fall River Road) which was still pretty snowy in June and then continued up past the Continental Divide and to Mt. Evans. There were some great views of Fall River Reservoir and Grey’s and Torries across the way.

We followed that hike with a summit of Grizzly Peak (the trailhead is located off of Loveland Pass). The good thing about both of these hikes is that they start relatively high so the elevation gain isn’t very extreme and people from lower altitudes don’t struggle with them too much. Additionally, these hikes aren’t very long and are very beautiful, so you won’t be spending an entire day hiking through monotonous terrain. Most importantly, they aren’t extremely crowded, so they are pretty good places to bring visitors.

The town of Idaho Springs (located right outside of Golden) is a great little mining town. A lot of people pass by this place every year but not a lot of people spend any time here. I’d recommend stopping by Tommyknocker Brewery. Colorado is famous for its microbrews and Tommyknocker is really good. If you are there during the summer ask them about their Green Chile beer. Its seasonal and they only make one batch every summer, so its hard to get…but definitely worth it!

Tags: colorado, hiking, Travel

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