Lake Katherine Trail, Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area, CO on July 8, 2005

Posted January 28, 2007

The Mount Zirkel Wilderness area is situated along the continental divide in northern Colorado. Just west of Walden, CO. Or, if the metropolis of Walden is a place you have not heard about, the wilderness area is just east of Steamboat Springs, CO. It is a 2.5 hour drive to get to the Mt. Zirkel wilderness from Fort Collins, CO. Which means that in the summer you can leave Fort Collins after work on a Friday and easily make a trailhead camp before dark. Perfect.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. In addition, you can view a topo map of the Lake Katherine TH here and a topo map here that shows where the trail contiues up to the continental divide. A Google Earth map can be found here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

I need to make a couple of things clear first. One thing is that getting to the trailheads for this wilderness area can be a little tricky. This is because some of them are only approachable using access roads through private ranch land.

Christmas Blizzard of 2006, Fort Collins, CO

Posted January 16, 2007

Yes, I know, this post is not like my normal hiking trip I usually document (you can find those below or listed under “pages of information” on the right), but, well, ummmm, we had this, uhhhh, little snowstorm…………………..

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this event. In addition, you can view a topo map of Fort Collins, CO here and a Google Earth map can be found here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

So, we are in a BLIZZARD : )
All the school systems were shut down.
DIA is mostly all down.
CSU was shut down (they sent us home at 10 am; actually, what they said was everyone HAD to be gone by noon).
So, I went shopping : ) Good thing I went early to Barnes and Noble, they were going to close at 3pm!!!!!!! wow
I have to call tomorrow morning to see if I go to work or not.

Big Sandy Lake Trailhead, Bridger Wilderness, Wind River Range WY September 2, 2005

Posted January 6, 2007

I’ve spent a fair amount of time up in the Wilderness Areas of Wyoming. Great state and great country north of Colorado. One particular wilderness that I’ve spent time in is the Bridger Wilderness Area. Most of my time has been in the northern part of the wilderness. I decided to head to an area in the Bridger wilderness that I had never seen.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. In addition, you can view a topo map of the Sandy Lake TH here and a topo map of Sandy Lake itself here. A Google Earth map can be found here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

First off. A little background on the wilderness area (see here for a Wikipedia entry for more information). The Bridger Wilderness (in the Wyoming Wind River mountain range) is what I call a “medium” continental USA wilderness. So, much bigger than most anything that Colorado has, but not quite as large as some wilderness areas found in other parts of Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho (Canada and Alaska don’t count : ). But, as the pictures will try to show, the feeling you get when you drive up to it is that “..that’s a LOT of country in there.” Here is a view of the wilderness as I drove up on the gravel road.

Also, all the land around it that you drive through (or, 99% of it) is either BLM or National Forest. And most of that area is pretty empty.

Baby Lakes Trail, WY on August 19, 2005

Posted January 1, 2007

I wanted to check out an interesting small wilderness area on the border of Wyoming and Colorado. The Huston Park Wilderness. Specifically, the Baby Lakes Trail. Based on reviewing the area on maps, it looked as if it would have one or more really nice day hikes. In addition, the area was home to a slightly different type of ecosystem than the normal Rocky Mountains I was used to.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. In addition, you can view a topo map here and a Google Earth map here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

I knew I had a long day ahead of me just to get to the trailhead because I planned on taking the “long” way. I wanted to see some areas of Colorado and Wyoming I had never been through before. Ended up being a 7 hour drive to get to the trailhead, but I stopped a lot and took pictures. I consider the time well spent.

What I did was head west from Fort Collins (Hwy 14) to Gould, CO, then instead of continuing to Walden, I cut across straight west using some county roads (all gravel) until I hit Hwy 14 again right before it intersects with Hwy 40. This took some additional time, but the scenary of the lush meadows and mountains along the way was worth the trouble.

When I hit Hwy 40, I took it over Rabbit Ears Pass to Steamboat Springs. Of course, I just had to stop on top of the pass and take more pictures : )