There’s a story in western Colorado involving Colorado National Monument that bears watching. The gist of the story is that some local community organizations are in support of redesignating the monument as a national park, but only if they can veto Park Service decisions on what uses the monument is appropriate for. Onlookers believe that this ties in to past...
Learn MoreBY: PATTON DODD The first time I hiked the Manitou Incline—a one-mile, 2,000-foot climb up an abandoned railway at the foot of Pikes Peak in Manitou Springs—my trapezius muscles were sore for days afterwards. Not my thighs, knees, or butt, as expected, but the muscles between my shoulders and my neck, as if my upper body had been pulling the rest of me up all along the...
Learn MoreCelebrate the newly reconstructed Pawnee Buttes Trailhead on the Pawnee National Grassland (PNG) on April 20 at 10 a.m. Employees will be on hand to cut the ribbon on this project and be available to provide information on recreation opportunities on the PNG. The U.S. Forest Service was able to complete the various improvements at the trailhead with the support of...
Learn MoreSo many dinosaur fossils are being discovered in a quarry on the Comanche National Grassland in southwest Colorado that experts call the find a “tossed salad of dinosaur parts.” Last fall, workers found the first Ceratosaurus tooth within the Picket Wire Canyonlands, which is best known for a huge dinosaur track site naturally exposed along the banks of the Purgatoire...
Learn MoreFisher’s Peak is the great physical landmark of the Trinidad area, standing at 9,573 feet of elevation. Adventurous hikers often gaze up at the peak, wondering what the vista might be like from the summit. Until now, the only access to the peak for hikers has come from the New Mexico side of the border, but a new plan may let hikers trudge to the top from the Colorado...
Learn MoreWhile the clock ticks away on last-minute negotiations to avoid plunging the nation’s economy over the dreaded fiscal cliff, the U.S. Senate did take steps late last night to provide a path up the side of a mountain – and in the process transform thousands of Colorado scofflaws into legal hikers. All it took was some long-overdue action on a bill to clear the...
Learn MoreJeff Doran is at it again. Today he is announcing the official launch of a brand new hiking website for Rocky Mountain National Park. The new site provides details on more than 70 hikes in RMNP, and is organized similarly to his HikingintheSmokys.com and HikinginGlacier.com websites. The URL for the new site is: RockyMountainHikingTrails.com In addition to being a great...
Learn MoreMany hikers put away their boots when the aspen shiver bare-branched and the snowfall starts shifting from a dusting to something measurable. Not Lisa Foster. Tall, with a chiseled face and a lean, angular body, Foster lives by her version of the Swedish axiom, “There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” She has climbed Longs Peak 49 times, by...
Learn MoreAnother dog stranded while hiking with owners on Quandary Peak made it safely off the Fourteener after Summit County Rescue Group responded to bring the dog and another hiker to safety. Two hikers and the dog ended up trapped, or “cliffed out” on the West Ridge route without technical gear. One of the hikers was able to climb down to get help using abandoned equipment he...
Learn MoreBeing a federal administrator overseeing a parcel of land as significant as the 2.3-million-acre White River National Forest, Scott Fitzwilliams said he doesn’t take it personally when someone criticizes the agency. But in the wake of a decision to ban roadside car camping for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge last month, the boo birds came out from some people who wanted...
Learn MoreHikers will love beautiful Buck Creek. The wild stream leaps, churns and tumbles over rocks, logs and boulders in a deep crevice that the rushing waterway itself has created. Moments away from busy Avon, the secluded canyon shelters walkers from a busy world below. The footpath ascends along the creek to emerge into a sun-bathed grassland, your destination. There a...
Learn More“Praise, patience and playfulness, those are the three things you always have to have along with you on any hike with kids,” the Durango-based Maureen Keilty says. “If you don’t have that, you might as well not go.” Keilty is the author of Best Hikes with Kids Colorado. As much as hiking is a physical challenge, Keilty says she knows the...
Learn MoreOn August 24 and 25, 2012, the sixth in the series of National Park Service-National Geographic Society BioBlitzes is scheduled to take place in Rocky Mountain National Park. The event is being held each year leading up to the National Park Service Centennial in 2016. Hundreds of scientists, students, teachers, and volunteers will gather to participate in this event, a...
Learn MoreAt 13,500 feet, among the snow-capped peaks of Mount Bierstadt in Colorado, Scott Washburn and his wife, Amanda, found an abandoned, dying German shepherd dog. Washburn and his wife were on a leisurely hike up Mount Bierstadt in Clear Creek County, a 14,000-foot peak near Denver. It’s too difficult for a dog to be on, or an inexperienced hiker. “We were hiking to...
Learn MoreIf you’re tempted to hike Greyrock, Hewlett Gulch, Young Gulch or any other national forest trail in the High Park Fire burn area of Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service says it might have a court date for you if you’re caught. Nearly the entire High Park Fire burn area within Roosevelt National Forest remains closed, but some people have been discovered hiking,...
Learn MoreColorado National Monument won’t be up for consideration as a new national park in the near future. Sen. Mark Udall and Rep. Scott Tipton won’t bring a bill to Congress this year to change the designation for the 20,000-acre monument in western Colorado. A community group appointed to study the change concluded that they couldn’t recommend the...
Learn MoreThe NoCo50 Challenge has seen hiking around the fun festivals and events that make summertime in Northern Colorado so entertaining. With the next challenge, it is time to get back to NoCo’s great outdoors and do some hiking as nature intended. When we think of hiking in NoCo, we instinctively look to the west and the amazing trails of the Rocky Mountains. For this week’s...
Learn MoreAmid a year of weather extremes, Northern Colorado’s mountains could be at a tipping point. Whether it’s because of extreme drought or climate change or both, those changes — the kind hikers and sightseers can see and touch — are on display this year like no other at Rocky Mountain National Park. There, Trail Ridge Road over the Continental Divide opened two weeks...
Learn MoreA billionaire hedge-fund manager pledged to protect 90,000 acres of his Colorado ranch from further development as part of a much larger planned conservation area. The Obama administration said it would be the “largest single conservation easement” ever provided to the federal government. The easement, which would include tax benefits for New York-based Louis...
Learn MoreAs firefighters battle blazes in New Mexico and Colorado that have forced evacuations and destroyed hundreds of structures, the U.S. Forest Service chief is renewing his call to restore forests to a more natural state, where fire was a part of the landscape. Experts say a combination of decades of vigorous fire suppression and the waning of the timber industry over...
Learn MoreOutdoor enthusiasts and experts alike have described the Grand Valley as a mecca for Colorado hiking and biking. With more than 150 hiking trails and more than 500 miles of single-track and multi-use trails, the challenge becomes selection and preference. More than 40 miles wide, the Grand Mesa is one of the world’s largest flat-topped mountains. At 10,000 feet, more...
Learn MoreThe U.S. Forest Service touts our public lands are “Land of Many Uses.” That is especially true in the area of recreation. On any given summer weekend, hikers and their dogs may encounter a pack of mountain bikers careening down steep switchbacks and blind corners; horseback riders plodding along trails with steep drop-offs on either side and their mounts...
Learn MoreVolunteers in Colorado are helping to build a completely new hiking trail, called the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), that stretches from Mexico to Canada and across Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Volunteers with the Continental Divide Trail Alliance (CDTA), based in Golden, Colorado, dig out the trail, clear vegetation and move huge boulders and trees...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. My regular hiking companions have designated me the lead hiker, so I suppose that makes me the slowest Meanderthal. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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