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.

Huntsmans Ridge

What was my go-to hike last summer has not seen my feet until today.  The rain we've enjoyed encouraged many wildflowers and mushrooms, along with some biting flies (a rarity out here).

I took the ridge out to the overlook to capture some panoramas and HDRs.  You'll want to click on the panos to see them best.

click on image to see large

colorado, mountains, hiking

click on image to see large

colorado, hiking

Yule Creek

No matter how many photos I share of this place, it never gets spoiled.  Even last week, when there were a half dozen cars at the trailhead, we saw only one person on the trail (the trailhead serves two trails, and many take the less scenic one, for reasons that elude me).

a big ass panorama that you have to click to appreciate

colorado, wilderness, raggeds, marble

old steam engine on the trail