Outdoor 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...
Learn MoreWhen you hear Triple Crown most often horse racing comes to mind but in the case of Stephanie White, 1990 graduate of Medomak Valley High School in Maine, it means hiking the top three trails in the United States. A school trip with biology teacher Pam Ramsey to Mt. Katahdin when White was a sophomore in high school spurred her hiking adventures. Ramsey was telling the...
Learn MoreHeavy snows in Rocky Mountain National Park have launched the snowshoeing season earlier than usual, and warm temperatures at lower elevations foster fall hiking. However, throughout the national parks and the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests, recent high winds have blown down heavy, old trees on a scale not seen for nearly four decades. Two areas in Rocky Mountain...
Learn MoreThe documentary piqued our interest in hiking. I’ve always loved the mountains – the endless succession of ridge upon ridge, each a microcosm teeming with life, with near-instant weather changes and country folk set in their ways. I’m not like most urbanites; the word “hillbilly” doesn’t strike fear in my heart. My grandparents were...
Learn MoreThere are no designated trails, only the tracks of elk. There are no posted signs, only a slight indentation through the tundra. There are no bridges, only fallen logs across the creeks. There are no people other than an occasional backpacker staggered by serenity and solitude. This wild and sacred place is not far from Aspen, but in 30 years of hiking the Elk Range, I...
Learn MoreThe tourists are back to work and back in school, the temperatures are back to “beautiful,” the aspen trees are the perfect shade of golden, and the Town of Frisco, Co. is packed full of events and outdoor fun to make Autumn, well, spectacular. September 10-24, 2011, the Town of Frisco will host Autumn Spectacular, a two-week long celebration of everything...
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Perhaps one of the reasons you head for the Colorado Rockies is the wealth of national parks and monuments. Maybe you enjoy the amazing increase in distance from high altitude golf. If you are a hiker, perhaps you welcome the opportunity to climb one of Colorado’s famous fourteeners. If that’s the case then this hike up Clear Creek County’s 13,234 foot...
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I first visited Hanging Lake in 1982. I heard this summer that the federal government had designated the site a National Natural Landmark, so it piqued my curiosity to take a look again. Glenwood Canyon is a rugged and remarkably scenic place with tall red sandstone cliffs rising 1300 feet on both sides of the Colorado River. The trail up the canyon to the lake follows...
Learn MoreDuring a recent trek along a mountain trail in the central Colorado Rockies, Todd Pitock found signs of those who had come before him. These weren’t fellow hikers, though, but soldiers. One patch near the trail was pitted with foxholes — scooped-out hollows, with one raised side, like a shield, the whole thing grown over with grass. “I’ve found ammunition...
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Missouri Lakes Basin in the Holy Cross Wilderness is one of the most beautiful areas in Colorado for hiking and camping that I have experienced. It is an area of lakes and streams filled with trout and large glacial boulders, surrounded by lush forest and tundra, and the gnarly cliffs of the Sawatch Range in the Holy Cross Wilderness. There is some of just about every...
Learn MoreWith a mix of soaring granite peaks, lush alpine meadows, high country lakes and waterfalls, Rocky Mountain National Park, in northeastern Colorado, is a park straight out of central casting. Driving the 48-mile Trail Ridge Road from Estes Park on the park’s east side to Grand Lake on the west offers thrills you can’t find in a car without a number painted on the...
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Flat Tops Wilderness is the second largest U.S. Wilderness Area in Colorado. Located near the towns of Yampa and Steamboat Springs, it is 235,214 acres, with 38,870 acres in Routt National Forest and 196,344 acres in White River National Forest. The area is named for a series of flat top mountains that dominate the landscape. This is sub-alpine and alpine terrain with...
Learn MoreLooking to hike your first peaks this summer? Maybe you’ve driven past the road markers pointing toward the peaks in the distance. Maybe you’re tired of your friends yammering on about their last backpacking trip. Maybe it’s just time to try one — it might just lead to a whole new obsession. Aside from being mentally and physically prepared,...
Learn MoreThe pristine turquoise lake known as Hanging Lake has always been one of the most popular hikes for visitors to Glenwood Springs, CO. Located along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon, the breathtaking one-mile trail has awed countless hikers for decades. Now the scenic spot has another big fan – the U.S. federal government, which recently designated Hanging Lake as a...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, publisher of Meanderthals, and a passionate hiker. I live in western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my doorstep, 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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