Tag: get moving
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Exploring the Paint Mines
People have been attracted to the rainbow-sherbet-color rock formations of the Paint Mines near Calhan for centuries, but another color show there is much less-well-known. In wet springs, such as this one, the short grass prairie erupts in wildflowers. May and early June are the best times to catch the show. To get there Take…
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Backdoor trails take you to the top
WHITE RIVER NATIONAL FOREST – In 2009, according to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, some 750,000 people will visit one of the state’s 54 mountains above 14,000 feet.On a Saturday in late June, it seemed a good portion of them were with me on the trail to Grays and Torreys peaks, two hugely popular fourteeners just…
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DELETE: Backcountry in your backyard: Lost Creek
UNVISITED COLORADO: This story is part of a series about off-the-beaten-track parts of Colorado that are worth a visit. LOST CREEK WILDERNESS • Less than 50 miles from Colorado Springs is a hidden paradise, a landscape of lush forests, high-mountain tundra, flowery meadows, boulder-strewn box canyons and rocky spires and domes transformed by eons of…
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Taste the river water
Justin Smith, president of the Pikes Peak Whitewater Club, doesn’t wait for either hell or high water to head to the river. He took his first whitewater kayak trip of 2009 in February and has been hitting rivers across the state several times a week ever since. “I’ve been out on Pine Creek, Numbers, the…
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Three hikes to take NOW if you’re a wildflower fan
Most of the year, the peak of Mount Herman is a windswept heap of rock. On this day, it’s a garden, thick with purple penstemon.The Pikes Peak region sloshed through a long, wet spring, and now we’re reaping the rewards with one of the best wildflower seasons in recent memory.While higher areas, such as Mount…
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Four things to accomplish outdoors in July
As if you needed an inspiration to get outside after the long, wet spring we had, here are four recommendations to enjoy the outdoors in July:1. Pick wild raspberries. Sunny mountain streambanks thrive with the delicious fruit, making a nice snack on a hike. Just make sure to leave some for the bears and birds.2.…
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These 6 hikes are for the birds (or at least the bird-watchers)
“If I had to choose,” the pioneering pilot Charles Lindbergh wrote late in life, “I would rather have birds than airplanes.”For him, a plane was a humble achievement compared with what he called the “basic miracle” of a single graceful swallow.Of course, the trouble with miracles in the age of airplanes is that they often…
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Mountaineering classes teach techniques that could save lives
ABOVE GLEN COVE ON PIKES PEAK • “You’re stepping from here into a different world.”On a murky May morning, the jagged walls of Pikes Peak poking out of the mist above, in a landscape draped in snow, experienced mountaineer Bill Houghton warns the group to be ready for anything.For the novice and moderately experienced mountaineers,…