Five Reasons to Thru Hike the Colorado Trail
I'm in love.
My wife and I just completed the Colorado Trail, and I am smitten. Below are five reasons for this love affair, first: some general information about this path carved through the Rockies.
The Colorado Trail is 485 miles (492 miles when taking the alternate Collegiate West route), passing through eight major mountain ranges, seven national forests, and six wilderness areas. The northern terminus is Waterton Canyon, just outside of Denver, and the southern end is Durango, CO. Most hikers make the trek southbound as the elevation starts lower on the northern end, allowing for a couple of days of acclimation before reaching 8,000+ feet.
Colorado Trail elevations range from a low of about 5,500 feet at the Denver end to a high point of 13,334 feet on Coney Summit in the San Juan Mountains. Thru-hikers of the trail will gain and lose approximately 89,000 feet of elevation during the trek.
The CT is divided into 28 segments of varying lengths and typically takes 4-6 weeks to hike. It shares the path with the Continental Divide Trail for approximately 200 miles (segments 6-24).
Forest Service ranger Bill Lucas first conceived the Colorado Trail in 1973, and Gudy Gaskill organized the construction. The Trail was built by volunteers and is currently maintained by the non-profit Colorado Trail Foundation and the United States Forest Service. The trail was connected entirely in 1987.
Now, without further ado, here are five reasons we love this long trail.
The Perfect Distance
Having hiked long trails ranging in length from 100 to 2,200 miles, we have found the 500-mile distance to be perfect for us. We've hiked two trails that are this length – the Camino de Santiago in Spain and the Colorado Trail.
We love this distance as we can hike it comfortably in 30-40 days. That time frame allows us to leave our hostel business (and everyday life) with minimal reorganization and disruption. Longer treks, such as the AT, PCT, or CDT, require more thought and a plan of action to be away from home for 5-6 months.
Also, 500 miles is plenty of time to get our backpacking fix, lose a bit of weight, and enjoy nature - all without tearing our bodies up too severely.
Views
The Appalachian Trail was our first long trail and will always be our first love. That said, it was frustrating on the AT to work so hard on a challenging climb only to go right back down with no view as a reward.
The Colorado Trail has glorious views galore. Every day, our breath was taken away by the high altitude and the Rocky Mountains' stunning beauty. The trail crosses the continental divide multiple times. Still, it isn't just mountain vistas that are amazing – meadows and fields filled with wildflowers and groves of aspen and pine are also stunning – and all of this scenery is a constant reward for a hard day's work.
Animals
"What was that noise?" my wife asked, waking me up out of a deep slumber. I listened and finally heard it too - something rooting around the campsite at 2:00 in the morning. I unzipped the thin sil-nylon protective wall that separated us from the presumably vicious beast outside, shined my light into the murk to see evil yellow eyes reflected. My sleep-addled mind cleared, and I recognized our visitor – a non-lethal mule deer.
Hiking as a couple who have frequent animated conversations, we are accustomed to not seeing many animals. The Colorado Trail was an exception.
We saw more mule deer, marmots, and pika than we could count. We also spied a few moose, a couple of weasels, and a few birds of prey. It is common to see bighorn sheep (especially in the first six miles of Waterton Canyon), but we were not fortunate enough to spot them, and while we didn't see any black bears, we saw plenty of evidence they were around. In addition to the wild mammals, we frequently encountered domesticated livestock in the form of cattle and sheep.
Solitude
2020 – the year of the plague – has been an interesting year for the hiking community. The three organizations that manage the AT, PCT, and CDT all issued statements encouraging hikers to eschew long-distance travel on these trails. The Colorado Trail Foundation made no such proclamation, so would-be AT, PCT, and CDT hikers modified their plans and headed to the CT to get their hike on.
We had read all the chatter on Colorado Trail forums about how packed the trail was going to be because of the stance of the "Big Three," and by all accounts, it was a very busy season. Even with the throng of thru-hikers on the trail, we had many days when we only saw one other thru-hiker and a few days when we saw none. The 500-mile trail absorbed the increase of people nicely, and we rarely shared a campsite with others if we didn't want to.
This trail is mixed-use, and most of it is available for cycling and horseback travel as well as backpacking/hiking; therefore, trailheads near towns are often busy with weekend warriors out for the day or a weekend. Outside of this, the trail seems perfect for someone who wants quiet alone time.
Trail Towns
In juxtaposition to the previous advantage of the trail – solitude – is the wonderful experience of going into trail towns. Getting off the trail is necessary for resupply, showers, and laundry, but Colorado Trail towns offer so much more.
Most of the towns along the CT are several miles from a trailhead, so you'll need to hitch in, hire a shuttle driver, or walk the extra miles in. The exceptions are Breckenridge and Copper Mountain, which both have a free shuttle, and Mount Princeton Hot Springs (on the east Collegiate loop) – a resort with hot springs, a restaurant, and a general store that the trail goes right by.
You will find all of these towns filled with mining and "old west" history. The towns are quirky and fun, and since they are tourist towns, they have all the amenities thru-hikers want – restaurants, breweries, and ice cream parlors. After hiking for multiple days (or a week), it's refreshing to take a shower, do laundry, get fed, and rejuvenate before hitting the trail again.
The five towns we resupplied in were: Breckenridge, Leadville, Salida, Lake City, and Silverton.
The Colorado Trail was a fantastic trip for my wife and me. It was challenging, beautiful, wild, and the perfect distance. I am sure you, too, will fall in love with this fantastic trail. We documented each day of our trip on our YouTube channel.