Lockwood's Adventures: June 2012

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Bierdstadt Trail, Pike National Park

June 17, 2012 - Pike National Forest - Bierstadt Trail / Mountain

The first mile of the trail is fairly flat. The Trail descends about 200 feet into a marsh area where you walk on a narrow "board walk" through the marsh. The pond in the foreground marks the middle of the marshy area. There is a small stream crossing and then it ascends slightly to the base of the mountain. From their the next 2.6 miles are a gradually increasing slop to the top of the mountain. The first 1/2 mile is through willow bushes and after crossing the tree line it becomes more rocky and steeper. There are several clearing in the 1/2 mile to rest and have lunch.

Guanella Pass Trailhead looking up at Bierdstadt Mountain.

A view from close to 12,000 ft up the mountain, just before the real climb up the mountain

We made it up to 12,177 ft. Top of the mountain is 14,060.

The yellow specs are gold in the little creek we had to cross.

More information about Bierstadt Trail / Bierstadt Mountain

http://www.protrails.com/trails/view/185/summit_county_eagle_county_clear_creek_county/mt_bierstadt

Saturday, June 2, 2012

June 2, 2012 - It was to be a rainy Saturday, but we decided to go out hiking anyway. We went out to Elk Meadow to do an easy hike that was relatively close to Denver. Elk Meadow ( 39.668548,-105.369201 ) is at the base of Bergen Peak in Evergreen CO. After about a mile in we noticed that the weather was coming in over the mountain and started running back to the car. We just made it before the rain really started to come down.

After Elk Meadow we drove around in the area exploring different areas of the Evergreen, where we stumbled upon Elk and Turkeys. As we made out way back to Denver we stopped off and explored the Valley area of Denver and did a little more hiking were we saw 3 deer (they were a lot closer than it looks, iPhone is not the best at capturing actual distance).