Welcome to the Colorado backcountry

The vast acreage of wilderness and backcountry beauty in Colorado make it one of the more popular locations for camping, backpacking, and day-hiking.

In addition to a eight National Parks and Monuments, Colorado boasts an equal number of Wilderness Areas, millions of acres of National Forest and BLM land, and over three dozen state parks.

From mountains to deserts, and grasslands to canyons, one could spend a lifetime hiking the trails of Colorado and not cover all of them.

The Crystal River Valley, South of Redstone, Colorado




A familiar trail I've avoided for a while was a perfect place for a short hike last Saturday afternoon.  Few other places have sage brush, scrub oak, and aspen trees.  Because colors are changing later this year, the scrub oak is peaking while the aspens are changing.  It's a great time for landscape photography, especially when using a polarizing filter.

This unmarked trail goes by many names, and is on few maps.  Driving north from Placita to Redstone, the road descends into a canyon.  On the right is a turn-out, and on the left one can pick the grade of a long-abandoned road bed climbing the western slope of the valley.  If you're coming from Redstone, it's about three and a half miles south of the coke ovens on highway 133.