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.

Snowshoeing in the Raggeds Wilderness



Starting at Erickson Springs, we snowshoed up Anthracite Creek into the Raggeds Wilderness Area.  This trail is called Dark Canyon, probably because the steep sides prevent the winter sun from reaching the bottom.  The photo above was taken after we came out of the canyon, and is looking westward, or downstream.

Erickson Springs is between Kebler Pass and the Paonia Dam, in western Colorado.