Golden Bear and Hagar Mountain - July, 2025

 

KD isn't a huge fan of hiking mountains and she was at a church camp so the rest of the family made a day trip to hike a walkup 13er up I-70.  Golden bear is a great family hike with a gradual trail or grassy tundra the whole way.  Once you leave the parking lot, the sounds of the interstate are quickly replaced by the sounds of nature.  Kolbs is such a curious guy and was asking questions the whole time as we leisurely walked up the switchbacks toward the saddle of Coon Hill and Golden Bear.  There were tons of animals and wildlife along the route as we quickly came to a few short snowfield crossings...Cami's favorite:

It took under 3 hours to summit with breaks and snacks along the way.  The day was pretty nice, so I decided to head over a connecting ridge to Hagar.  I told the family I would give myself a one hour deadline to reach the summit or I'd turn around so they wouldn't have to wait on me too long.  Moving as quickly as I could without getting too uncomfortable, I was just able to make it in under that deadline.  The last push up Hagar is not so gentle, but steep and loose.  The final summit pitch had some fun scrambling at the top. 

Golden Bear Summit

Looking up at Hagar with the Citadel on the right

The way down was pleasant.  Though it was an "easy" mountain, there is always a degree of danger involved in any adventure.  While walking down, Kolby tripped on some rocks and scraped his knee up a bit.  A reminder that nature is merciless and indifferent to human mistakes.  He got some quick relief from his wounds with some Smashburger in Silverthorne.

McInnis Canyons Rafting Trip - June 2025

 

Late June we had the opportunity to tag along on a Colorado River rafting trip with a couple other families in the McInnis Canyon area.  We started out of Fruita, CO and traveled all the way across the boarder into Utah.  It was a fun time in some beautiful country.  The weather was very warm, but nothing that water can't fix!   We stayed at two different campsites two different nights and went on a few hikes along the way.  

Petroglyphs

Sunset on the Colorado River

Lots of wildlife along the river

St. Vrain Mountain - June 2025

The sun burning the clouds off of the Longs Peak group

 First hike of 2025 might be the closest 12,000 ft. peak to our house, St. Vrain Mountain.  This was a great warm up with just about 9 miles and 3000 gain.  I was pleasantly surprised by the awesome views on this hike.  It puts you at a perfect vantage for Longs, Wild Basin, and the northern Indian Peaks Wilderness.  This will definitely be one I recommend to visitors in the future. I went with Black and White on the images for this one:

Tim ascending toward St. Vrain's summit

Mt. Alice

Beaver Reservoir I believe

Audubon and Paiute from the summit