Hiking in the Front Range

Most Front Range trails start between 5,500 and 8,000 feet, which is why they work almost year-round. Boulder's Mesa Trail, Mount Sanitas, and the Flatirons, Fort Collins' Horsetooth and Devils Backbone, and the Denver Mountain Parks around Morrison and Evergreen usually stay hikeable through winter with microspikes on the shaded sections. The high country above them, St. Mary's Glacier, Chicago Lakes, Grays and Torreys, and Mount Bierstadt, is a summer and early-fall proposition, typically late June through early October.

The trade-off for being close to two million people is parking. Chautauqua in Boulder fills by 7 AM on summer weekends, the Grays and Torreys lot at Stevens Gulch fills before sunrise, and the Manitou Incline requires a free timed reservation. Weekday mornings solve most of it. So do the less famous trailheads: North Table Mountain in Golden, Mount Falcon near Morrison, Lovell Gulch near Woodland Park, and Greyrock north of Fort Collins rarely turn anyone away.

Two things catch visitors. The first is altitude: Denver is a mile high and the trailheads above Idaho Springs and Georgetown start above 10,000 feet, so a first-day hike should stay low. The second is weather. From June into September, storms build over the peaks by early afternoon almost daily, and lightning is the real hazard on anything above treeline. Plan to be heading down by noon on the 14ers and the alpine lakes.

The Front Range also holds the two most climbed fourteeners in the state, Bierstadt and Grays, plus Pikes Peak by way of the 26-mile Barr Trail. If you are new to the high peaks, start with Mount Bierstadt or Grays Peak and read the altitude sickness guide first.