Since I moved to Colorado in January, I’ve had to learn a whole new terminology and approach to hiking. “Have you hiked a 14er yet?” everyone will ask. This is one of the mountains that is 14,000 feet or higher, of which there are many. Some people “bag peaks,” talking about the mountains they have summited. People will refer to hiking the “front range,” meaning both the Southern range of the Rockies and the urban region just east. This as opposed to the part of Colorado that is the “western slope” which is west of the Continental Divide.

There are also some hikes you can only really do during a short period of summer due the elevation and the amount of snow (if you don’t want to snowshoe or ski, that is!). So I learned, that in the summer, you want to get to those places you won’t be able to get to much of the year, or that will be snow covered most of the year. The summer also has monsoon thunderstorms in the afternoons, so you have to do some planning not to get yourself on a peak or above treeline during lightning. It’s definitely recommended to start early, which I’d usually do anyways to try to get any kind of decent parking.

I was also training for my Iceland trek, and wanted to make sure I got in some long hikes with my pack before my trip.

I went to a presentation at REI by the author of the book Base Camp Denver, and he recommended several summer hikes that I ended up doing. The amount of hikes you can do is almost overwhelming, so it was nice to have a list.

Here are some of the hikes I did this summer:

Great Sand Dunes National Park

My friend Lacey and I did this over Memorial Day Weekend. We did not do any strenuous hiking beyond walking around. It was pretty tough to walk uphill in sand, and kind of scary for me with the height (which is lame since you would fall on sand). Lots of people “sandboard” down the sandy hills. You can actually summit some of the dunes. It’s an incredible place to visit, and insane how snow capped peaks loom over sand dunes.

Chicago Lakes 

This is near Idaho Springs, and I did this hike near the end of June. You drive up a mountain and feel like you’re going to the middle of nowhere, and then arrive at Echo Lake with tons of people parked down the road. The full hike is 9.1 miles with 2,142 feet elevation gain. I only went to the first lake though. It has diverse terrain like many Colorado hikes. You start going downhill through a forest (which means coming back uphill, not super fun on the way back!), then there is a dirt service road for a while, then a reservoir, then a lot of uphill to the lake, which is gorgeous. I started to head to the second lake but it was muddy with snow melt and a lot of big rocks to navigate over. There is also a bit which challenged my fear of heights where the trail is fairly narrow and you’re walking on the side of the mountain with a drop off. The views are beautiful of course.

Lost Creek Wilderness

I did the Goose Creek Trail over 2 days backpacking over the 4th of July weekend. This is backpacking central – nearly everyone I saw on the trail had their pack and there are a ton of well-used campsites in this back country. I did around 5-6 miles the first day, which was a lot of uphill. You walk into the forest along a creek, through some tall trees that felt like a fairyland forest, and see tons of weird but cool looking rock formations. There were tons of wildflowers too. And even an old pioneer era cabin. It was awesome. I camped by a creek and set up my hammock for the afternoon and evening. The only downside was bugs and some rain at night. The morning was gorgeous and hiking downhill the same 5-6 miles was much easier, allowing me to really take in the scenery. I even saw some deer.

Golden Gate Canyon State Park

I feel like this park is kind of a hidden gem that is only an hour outside of Denver, near Golden. I also backpacked here on Mountain Lion Trail, a 7 mile loop. There are established campsites that you book at the visitor’s center. There were a ton of wildflowers on this hike. I hiked around 5 miles the first day. My camp was near a creek and once again, I had great hammocking trees. I only had to hike out a couple of miles in the beautiful early morning light.

Paint Mines

My friend Lacey found this place and we headed there one Saturday at the end of July. It’s really in the middle of nowhere (El Paso County). It does not take too much hiking to get to the rock formations, which are insane. The colors are just amazing and you can spend some time walking around them. It’s not insanely busy and another hidden gem in Colorado. I’m glad Lacey found this place!

McCullough Gulch

The full mileage is around 6 miles for this trail near Breckenridge. I went at the beginning of August and only went to the first lake, so it was more like 4.5 miles for me, but this was one of my favorite hikes. You only have to go a couple miles in to get some good bang for your buck. The mountain scenery is gorgeous to start. There is some uphill and you quickly reach a waterfall. Then you hike to a gorgeous lake. I tried to hike to the next lake but found the trail confusing, and I did this hike in an afternoon, so I headed back instead.

Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

I planned to hike to Black Lake in August, a 10-mile hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. I woke up early and made the 2 hour drive, arriving around 7:30. I had been wanting to go to the national park for a while and finally made it! I parked in the park and ride and took the shuttle to the trail head. The trail is quite paved and easy for a bit and then gets rocky. You fairly quickly reach Alberta Falls. Then, you reach Mills Lake, a gorgeous alpine lake. I ate my snacks here and carried on, but it started to rain. I had my rain jacket, so I kept going, hoping the rain would let up. I looked at the sky and saw no sign of sun (there had been no rain in the forecast for the morning). I decided to turn back and the rain did not let up. I ended up hiking 6.5 miles in around 3.5 hours, which was making me feel better about my abilities to hike in Iceland.

Mount Zirkel Wilderness

This was my last trip before Iceland. I ended up hiking 10 miles each day there. This was in mid-August. This was about 3 hours away closer to Steamboat Springs, and includes around 6 miles on a rough dirt road (my Honda Fit could make it but I went slow). The first day I wanted to hike to Gilpin Lake, which I had seen pictures of. This wilderness has EVERYTHING, with all of the magical fairy tale forest feelings, wildflowers, waterfalls, and deer, pika, and marmots.  I got to the first lake, but started to feel the effects of altitude sickness to a mild degree (dizziness, nausea). I remembered that my hiking safety class had said the best cure for altitude sickness is to come down from the altitude, so even though I was a mile from Gilpin Lake, I came down.

The next day, I was determined to get to that lake. It was a tough hike with lots of uphill and elevation gain. It was worth it in the end. I mean, look at this lake.

It’s surrounded by trees so it is perfect for hanging your hammock.

I couldn’t stay for as long as I liked as I was worried about impending storm clouds. So I booked it back down (and of course it never stormed). I was utterly charmed when I stopped in Steamboat Springs to devour a gigantic breakfast dish. I definitely want to get back there.

There are SO many hikes to do in Colorado in the summer (I didn’t even summit a 14er). I really enjoyed the hikes I did do. I am excited for fall, which is a season I haven’t experienced in a while. I definitely plan to do some “leaf-peeping” and plan some trips around fall leaves.