Maureen Keilty - Best Hikes with Kids: Colorado

best hikes with KIDS COLORADO

THE MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS

is the nonprofit publishing arm of The Mountaineers, an organization founded in 1906 and dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and enjoyment of outdoor and wilderness areas.

1001 SW Klickitat Way, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98134

2012 by Maureen Keilty

All rights reserved

Previous editions published as Best Hikes with Children in Colorado by Maureen Keilty.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America

Copy Editor: Jane Crosen

Cover and Book Design: The Mountaineers Books

Layout: Ani Rucki

Cartographers: Ani Rucki & Jennifer Shontz

Photographs Dan Peha, unless otherwise noted

Cover photograph: Balance games create a fun log crossing for kids hiking Junction Creek (Hike 90) in Durango. Junction Creek is the southern end of the nearly 500-mile Colorado Trail threading the Rocky Mountains to Denver.
Frontispiece: Stunning views captivate a young mountaineer in the San Juan Mountains.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Keilty, Maureen, 1952

Best hikes with kids Colorado / Maureen Keilty ; photographs by Dan Peha.1st ed.

p. cm.

Previous editions published as Best Hikes with Children Colorado by Maureen Keilty.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-59485-687-7 (ppb)

1. HikingColoradoGuidebooks. 2. Hiking for childrenColoradoGuidebooks. 3. Family recreationColoradoGuidebooks. 4. ChildrenTravelColoradoGuidebooks. I. Title.

GV199.42.C6K46 2012

796.5109788dc23

2012007546

Printed on recycled paper

ISBN (paperback): 978-1-59485-687-7

ISBN (e-book): 978-1-59485-688-4

I care to live, only to entice people to look at Natures loveliness.

John Muir

DEDICATION

To Niko, who continues leading us along new trails

A QUICK GUIDE TO THE HIKES

To quickly select a hike your family will like:

Pick the region where you intend to hike.

Narrow down your choices by difficulty level. (E= easy; M= moderate; C = challenging). Note that some hikes include options of varying difficulty.

Make sure the trail is accessible at this time of year.

Browse the highlights to get a sense of the hike.

See the full hike description for distance, elevation gain, seasonal specifics, and other details. Happy trails!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to the employees of the United States Forest Service, National Park Service, and the divisions of parks and recreation in numerous cities throughout Colorado for providing both verbal and written trail information. Tips on trails from many friends are likewise appreciated. Special thanks go to my husband, Dan Peha, and our son, Niko, my favorite hiking partners.

INTRODUCTION

Its been more than twenty years since I wrote the introduction to the first edition of this book, marking a significant passage for the book and my family. The day after completing the hikes for the first edition, I gave birth to our son, Niko. On his twenty-first birthday I submitted the manuscript for this edition.

Hundreds of Best Hikes later, including the trails for two editions of Best Hikes with Children in Utah, my family and I are still hiking. My husband, Dan, and I recently celebrated his sixtieth atop 19,341-foot Kilimanjaro, and were planning a similar ascent in South America later next year. Niko, on the other hand, hikes in whitewater safety gear with a kayak strapped to his back, bushwhacking to remote, boulder-studded descents that he paddles, so far, successfully. (And I keep repeating, This too shall pass.)

Despite my terrors about Nikos whitewater creeking, his kayaking introduced me to another type of kid-friendly trail: a communitys multi-use riverside trail. In the early kayaking days, Niko trained and competed in a rivers whitewater park while I walked alongside on a broad, paved path enjoying a river reprieve. I noted how each walk provided parking (usually free), restrooms, easy access to shops, and fun diversions like a fishing dock, elegant stone sculptures, or a ropes course. Nearly every Colorado community edging a river or creek has recently developed its own riverside trail, and while they all rate as ideal family destinations, Ive described four to six Best Riverside Walks at the end of each regional section of the book.

Hiking pals play creek-crossing games on logs and rocks.

For this editions twenty-four new hikes, Dan and I circled the state like hunters on an expedition, stopping to hike, photograph, take notes, and ask about other trails. Our research trips totaled 2100 tire miles and about 200 on our feet, but we returned with an assortment of trophy trails for kids. From the ghost-like hoodoos of Paint Mines Interpretive Park (Hike 26) in the east to the triple sixty-foot waterfalls of the Coyote Trail (Hike 50) in the west, from spotting moose on the Ranger Lakes Nature Trail (Hike 72) in the north to discovering the ancient dwellings of Sand Canyon (Hike 95) in the south, we found a hike for the Colorado kid in everyone.