Colorado Backpack Trail

[Roosterstraw]

My wife and I are wanting to do a backpack trip in Colorado next year. We want to hike for 5-6 days. She is in great shape and I’m in decent shape. I was hoping someone could recommend some trails/areas and the best time to do this? I will be in Colorado bow hunting in September so I was hoping to do this sometime June-August but not sure how much snow there will be during this time.

 

[303TrophyHusband]

Plenty of places to do it, if I were you I'd find something within the unit you plan to hunt so you can get some scouting in while you're at it. Use a free app like AllTrails or similar, usually some pretty good info on there and it'll give you a good idea of trail conditions. Depending on winter snowfall amounts June may be a little early but by mid July you should be good just about anywhere in the state.

 

[Roosterstraw]

Plenty of places to do it, if I were you I'd find something within the unit you plan to hunt so you can get some scouting in while you're at it. Use a free app like AllTrails or similar, usually some pretty good info on there and it'll give you a good idea of trail conditions. Depending on winter snowfall amounts June may be a little early but by mid July you should be good just about anywhere in the state.

It seems like most of the popular trails I see on google are in the 15-25 mile range. Just doesn’t seem like enough for 5ish days. We may have to end up hitting two trails if they are close enough. I thought about doing a hike in the same unit I hunt but not sure I can swing it with the wife. I hunt so much I would feel a little guilty taking a glorified scouting trip.

 

[MuleyFever]

I dont know if there are options for this but some Google-Fu could probably find the answer. I would look into a transportation option that would pick you up at one of the Colorado Trail trail heads and take you to another one many miles away. That would give you the opportunity to hike for a few days back to your car.

If you are not set on CO you could do this on the Highline trail in the Uintas in UT. There are shuttle options that will take you from one side to the other. I think the trail is about 100 miles.

 

[Poser]

The Colorado Trail is probably the best single trail in America. Not all sections are awesome though. The initial stretch out of Denver is pretty boring. Here’s a Suggestion for ya:

Park your car at Molas Pass and spend 3-4 days hiking to Durango, which is about 70 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing. Spend the night in Durango, take the train to Silverton and then hitchike 20 minutes back up to your car.

 

[GunsAreFun]

There are so many dang trails in Colorado. I just know from eScouting that you barely can go anywhere that does have two or more trails within a couple miles. Many of these trails aren’t “mapped” on apps like AllTrails, but I bet you could easily patch together a long enough stretch manually.

 

[westslopelaker]

Probably not 5 days worth but you should Google the "4 pass" loop in the maroon bells. Hit the hot springs in Glenwood for a night and then you can hike a couple 14ers in the area to round out your trip.

 

[brsnow]

Colorado will do it, but it is easy to link trails and create your own adventure

 

[Roosterstraw]

Colorado will do it, but it is easy to link trails and create your own adventure

That’s probably what we’ll have to do. I was hoping there was a big loop trail we could do in 40-50ish mile range.

 

[GunsAreFun]

That’s probably what we’ll have to do. I was hoping there was a big loop trail we could do in 40-50ish mile range.

Use google earth pro or something like Gaia. They have path marking abilities so you can plan your own route and get pretty accurate distances and elevation gain. Gaia also has a layer called OSM that shows tracks of other users so you can get an idea of what trail are being used (I.e. likely in good shape).

I’d stick to more well known area like Maroon Bells because some of these forest service trails that show up on a map just don’t exist. Another option is to verify the trail on multiple map layers as well as call the state/forest service/BLM to verify the trail is still there.

 

[Tobe_B]

Vallecito lake is just outside of Durango and offers a lot of access to the wilderness area. You could make a pretty big loop just hiking up vallecito creek and back down the pine river trail. Throw in a few days of sightseeing along some of the other trails that spur off of those and you’d have a pretty good trip. Plus there’s fishing along the way.


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[Philc]

Vallecito for sure. Four passes with side trip to crested butte,although this requires bear containers and permits. flat tops