Apex Park trail

Apex Park Trail
Heritage Square                                                             Trip Length : 5.6 Miles/ Round Trip
18301 W Colfax Ave,                                                    Elevation Gain : 960 Ft
Golden, Co 80401                                                          Time : 3 Hrs

           It was Daylight end and had extra one hour sleep. We started at 8am from home with our friend. It took almost 9am for all of us to gather. It was 7 people and a kid on this hike. It was bit windy and cool. The trail went all way up in the mountain. The Trail was very narrow with lots of bikers. We had to give way for them very frequently. It was interesting to see them riding the bikes in the hill.

 We took Pick-N-Sledge trail to climb up, for about 0.9 miles. Me and one of my friend were chatting till up. Finally there was a Grubstake loop intersecting , my hubby and other friend was waiting for us to reach. We sat for a break and had a small snack waiting for rest to reach.

We were able to see a wide view of  Golden city. And as well as Denver downtown high rise buildings. Guys were deciding, the trail to go more up. One of our friend returned back. Then we took Pick-N-Sledge trail for another 0.6 miles. I did not feel as we hiked, so wanted to give a non stop hike to burn more calories.

I joined my hubby and took Grubstake trail for about 1.7 miles. The loop took all way down which was nice steep. And then a good elevation. This was a nice non-stop hike made real worth. Finally the Grubstake trail connected us to the pick-N-sledge loop. We took our way back.

           Has getting down we saw Apex Park trail loop, we wanted to give a try. A mountain biker who came in that trail said that trail was really fun. So we took that way. We almost started and my hubby got a call from a friend saying that they missed their daughters hoodie on the way. So we returned back to pick-N-sledge loop. It got exhausted at this point. We reached the parking lot at 12pm and returned back to our home.

This hike was really a different experience and i really enjoyed.

Thank You,
Dhamaya.

Horseshoe Trail

Golden Gate Canyon State Park
HorseShoe Trail                                                               Trail Length : 3.6 Miles/ Round Trip
92 Crawford Gulch Rd,                                                    Elevation Gain : 960 Ft
Golden, Co 80403.                                                           Time : 2 Hrs 30 Min



            We hiked with 3 of our friends family. Me and my hubby have already hiked in this trail. We did not know until we reached there. We went along with our friend. We all started together in two cars from one place. On Crawford Gulch Road we took a wrong route, were GPS took us nearly 6 miles off road connecting Crawford Gulch Road. We reached the visitors center to pay for the parking. It was $7/ day.                

                Horse shoe trail was nearby the visitors center, our friend drove the car to the Horseshoe trail parking lot and my hubby came running. The parking area was very small. Once all reached, we started the hike, it was almost 9.30 am. This was a well shaped trail edged by stream and full of pine trees on both the sides.

            The trail had a gradual elevation up on the mountain. It was fun with lots of people this time. Me and my hubby were pretty fast, along with our friends. We got split into two groups. My hubby started running uphill for few minutes. At a point there was two trails splitting, we could'nt see rest five people behind. We took a stick and marked on the trail path for other friends behind to follow our route. And we took trail again. It was fairly good climb up the hill.

          We four reached up where there was a wide fallen pine trees which looked like few burnt in fire. We went into the woods to rest and had snacks, waiting for the rest to reach. It was almost 15-20 minutes there was no trace of those people coming up. So we planned to return back. We met them coming up. And they joined us together going down. On way out we met a new friend, a snake.... Yeah it was a snake on the trail. This was the first time in Colorado we saw a snake on the trail.

  While returning back it was pretty easy and fun. I felt this place would definitely be a good place to hike in fall season. Should come back next year to enjoy foliage colors.
                                                           
                                                          Here's our group selfie.

Thank You,
Dhamaya

Great Sand Dunes Hike

Great Sand Dunes National Park                                            
10945-11191 Colorado 150                                               Trail Length : 3 Miles / Round Trip
Mosca, CO 81146                                                              Time : 2 Hrs 30 Minutes
Gps Co-ordinates:  N37 44.370 W105 31.048
           
               This was my favorite hike and enjoyable hike. We did camping in Pinon Campground inside the national park for Labor day weekend. We took the trail from Pinon Campground area. We thought of starting the hike on the 1st day evening, so that we can reach top for sunset photography. But half the way, the sand was blowing like anything and poking our legs. So we returned back to our camping site. We planned  to wake-up early the next morning and begin our hike for sunrise.
 

          I woke up first and went to brush my teeth. The sunrise almost started, we rushed ourselves to begin the hike. The weather was pretty cold. I wore my wind jacket and gloves.I packed water bottles and snack bar and started at 7 am.  The shadows on the dunes looked great. My hubby enjoyed taking picture all the way. We must have been 15 to 30 minutes early to capture good pictures. We thought to hike until the top most part. Nice up and downs all the way. 

           No specific trail routes to follow, we made our own trail. It was really a fun climbing in the sand. If we took a step-up, felt like coming back to the same place. The final part was really challenging with nice ups, took 10 steps and rested. Finally reached the top most part. The Hiking to dunes were so different from normal colorado mountain hikes.

            WOW.....Amazing  Dunes all around, couldn't really say in words how wonderful it was. We could see all other smaller dunes below us. People below looked tiny as Ants in a row. We just sat on the sand enjoying the view. We also saw our foot paths all the way. It took almost 1.30 Hr to reach up.

           The wind started blowing again. I pulled my hoodie and tied up. We planned to get down quickly. Getting down was very easy and fun. We reached the bottom pretty soon within 15 minutes. And from the Medona creek it took almost another 15 min to reach the camp ground. 

The Dunes were stunning, well worth the visit. Definitely will hike once again.

Thank You,

Dhamaya.

Delicate Arch Trail

Arches National Park                                                    Trail Length : 3 Miles/ Round Trip
GPS : N38 44.135 W109 31.229                                           Elevation Gain : 480 Ft
Arches entrance road,                                                         Time : 3 Hrs
UT 84532, USA                                                                   Starting Point : Wolfe Ranch Parking Area

         This is our third visit to Arches National Park. The first time we visited delicate Arch from the Lower view point which was just beside the parking lot. And Second time we saw its view from Upper view point trail 0.5 miles. My hubby was curios and wanted to hike till the delicate arch some other time. We made this hike during our trip to Zion National Park. This was on our final day trip. We started early from the hotel and reached Moab, Arches National Park Visitors center by 9am. 

           We all-most started the hike at 10 am, very sunny day while the temperature was hitting above 90's. We had to climb on the rocks all over the trail. The heat from the rock was reflecting like anything. It took almost an hour and a half to reach there. There was no shade at all. While nearing the Arch a huge rock gave us nice shade. We did not take a break all the way until we reached the Arch. Few place were scary,and i was bit afraid of heights.

 The View of the Delicate arch was simply awesome. To reach the delicate -arch was really challenging, which was slippery.Our shoes helped us well.We had to climb up a rock to get into the amphitheater. Once i got into it my legs were shivering. And i couldn't rather even take a step. Slowly cooled myself. It was like a amphitheater.

                                     

         We headed till the arch took some snaps, i tried going underneath the arch but i was scared, bcoz it was very sloppy nearby. But i managed to get till one end. My hubby was busy taking snaps. I found a nice shady place to rest, with my legs spread. Mean while my hubby joined me. Took some selfie and video.

           Had water and a snack bar. While we thought to start Utsab and Samarpita reached. They took some snaps and started getting down. Again my hubby started taking snaps. Then we also started getting down. On the way down we saw a hole ,my hubby climbed on the rock to take pictures. There were two chinese guys taking picture for a long time. My hubby got bored waiting for them, finally came down. Utsab and samarpita were faraway from us. We took a brisk walk and reached them. And over took them and reached the car. The car was hot like a conventional oven, opened all the windows and turned on the AC. Washed our face with the ice cold water. It was 12.30pm. It was just as spectacular. 

Thanks to my hiking pole.

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

Hanging Lake Trail

Hanging Lake 
Interstate 70,                                                             Trail Length : 2.4 Miles/ Round Trip
Glenwood Springs,                                                   Elevation :1000 Ft
Co 81601                                                                  Time : 2 - 4 Hours
Exit 121 & Exit 125
Gps Cp-Ordinates : 39.60165'N 107.191997'W


                         We bought our new car Sonata last week and planned to take it for a long drive. We and Britto family drove to hanging lake. Hanging lake hike is a popular hiking spot in Colorado. It is located in Glenwood springs I-70 W. We started pretty early from home as we had to drive 3 Hours to reach there especially to get parking. We bought our breakfast from Subway and had in driving. The parking lot was almost full with just few space remaining. There was a very big river running beside the parking lot. In 300 ft from the parking area we found the trail to our left.

               

The first 200 ft was very elevated. The Trail was very steep with large rocks and huge steps. The trail followed along the Dead Horse Creek all the way till the lake. After that, it had gradual ups and downs. We speeded up leaving Madhu and Britto behind.

The View of the canyon was majestic. The weather was pretty cool while heading up. We thought it might rain. 

I carried few snacks and water bottles with me and my hubby took his camera bag and Britto's tripod.
I took short breaks whenever my hubby gets into his photography.

 The final part did not have any trails instead had steel steeps to reach up. It was a pretty big one. We had a good view of the canyons from there. The steps were like letting only one people at a time, so had to wait for people heading first. People who are scared of heights, don't think will manage here.

Once we saw the lake it was gorgeous. I cant say it in words. No one can explain exactly how beautiful it was. It took almost 1 1/2 Hour to reach. I wanted to sit so rushed and found a place in a shade. My hubby was busy with his camera roaming all around. The water was very clean and clear.  We spent almost an hour up. We were waiting for Madhu and Britto. We did not get mobile signal to reach them. While we were thinking what to do, we saw them coming. Then had snacks with them, specially cucumber with chilly powder.

 In a short distance from the lake was the Spouting rocks which had a small hole making a water fall. Me and my hubby went had a view of the lake from top.

 Then we start getting down. Hiking up looked easier than going down. We had to keep an eye for every step we took. All because of the crazy rocks. It took 45 minutes to reach our car.

Thank You,
Dhamaya