Eldorado Canyon Trail

Eldorado Canyon State Park                                          Trail Length  : 7.5 Miles/ round trip
9 Kneale Road,                                                                   Elevation gain : 1000 ft
Eldorado Springs,                                                               Degree of difficulty : Difficult
CO 80025                                                                            Time : 6 hrs
Park Fee : $8

             
               Eldorado Canyon Trail is located in Eldorado Canyon State Park, Near boulder, Co. It is a famous rock climbing spot for the rock climbers. That day we reached there by 8.30 am, the parking lots was almost filled up and as well as the road side spots. We gotta parking finally far away from the trail. We did not have a look on any trail spots. We decided a spot by seeing the parks brochure. Eldorado CAnyon trail looked hidden nearby the visitors center. The weather was perfect today.

               The trail looked super busy and crowded with families and kids. The first 700 ft was a nice steep gain. This time i wore my new Reebok shoe just for a try which made me mad. This was really a different experience like crossing many hills. Few places was scary with steep slopes. We crossed many runners on the trail. We saw a railroad in other side of the mountain and suddenly heard khoo-khoo noise, what a amazing view, a train was coming...

There were several ups and downs on the trail. We heard the noise of running water at the top. Eldorado Trail continued till Walker Ranch loop trail which dropped about 570 ft where you'll meet a huge south boulder creek.There was a nice bridge to take snaps and stop for good break. Washed our face in natural cool water. We saw few people fishing there. Then we started heading back. Had a break after a great climb. Then we once again started.

We saw many old people while returning back, Which gave us energy to do more. Finally we reached the final part which was a nice get down. We got to the car by 4pm. Hope we'll come once again to hike other trails. Really loved this hike.

ThankYou,
Dhamaya

Carpenter Peak Trail - RoxBorough State Park

Roxborough State park                                             Carpenter Peak Trail

4751 Roxborough Drive,                                          Round Trip : 6.4 Miles

Littleton,                                                                   Elevation  Gain: 7160
CO 80125 USA                                                        Degree of difficulty : Moderate
                                                                                  Hours : 4 Hrs 30 min

            This was our first hike in this year 2014. My hubby had a appointment with a chiropractor at
7am and we both planned to hike to RoxBorough state park after his visit. The temperature was pretty good today.  He took a day off on Friday. And we both started from there. It was just a half an hour drive from Greenwood village,Co to the state park. We had to drop $7 at the entrance station. But we thought the national park permit was valid for state parks too. And drove inside. It was a huge parking lot inside with just few cars in the lot. We placed the  permit on the dashboard. And started. It had a pretty good pathway entrance which took to a visitor's center. But the visitors center was closed which usually opens at 9am.

Trail Map

            We saw few trail maps and picked up Carpenter Peak Trail, a moderate one which was 6.4 mile round trip hike of moderate-to-steep terrain. Its summit was the highest peak in the park with elevation of 7160 ft and provided a spectacular view in all directions. At the trails starting point we saw a trail direction board and warning board. We were scared seeing the board with warning sign,
'mountain lion activity in this area'. We just took a minute thinking whether to start or back up. Mean while we saw a ranger coming and spoke to him. After hearing from him, its safe to hike on this trail we started.

Sign Board on the trail

            It was 9am when we started. The trail took through a red rock formation about .4 miles and headed up into the bushes and then elevated into the pines. Several parts of the trail was nice shady. We thought it was round trip trail. We just met few peoples on the trails.

Finally when we headed up to the summit, we were searching for the trail downward. Finally we came to know that it was the end point and we had to return the same way has we came up. We stopped there for resting, had a snack and took photos. Then we started heading down hill which was pretty easy. And temperature started warming up and felt dehydrated. It was 1.45 pm when we came back to the car. It took almost 4.5 hours for us to complete the whole trip.

A snap from the summit

               A Good start for this season. Hope we'll hike more miles.

Thank You,
Dhamaya