Hiking adventure in Colorado. Part I.

One of my favorite states of all is Colorado. It has 4 seasons and each season is beautiful! I usually fly there at winter for some ski adventures. But in August I quit my job and the first thing I did, I booked a flight to Denver, the desire of going for a hike was just super high. Colorado is a unique state for me – there is a wild life, dense forests, mountains, lakes, rivers. You can do so many outdoor things all year around: hiking, mountain biking, climbing, fishing, rafting, camping; at winter – skiing, riding a snowmobile, tubing, going to hot springs, horseback riding etc. I also admire older people who live there, because they stay constantly active! It’s like a mutual hobby the young and old crowd have – to stay healthy and active! I absolutely love it!

One of my best friends moved to CO 3 years ago and I always have a place to stay since then, I’m very thankful to her since she always takes care of me, she drives me to all amazing national parks, touristic destinations and shows me places around. It’s nice to have someone you can sleep over in Colorado because hotels and Airbnb are expensive… So, I spent the first 4 days in Denver with her, we had a lot of fun, checked local botanical gardens, went to some national parks and waterfalls, and did some touristic things, and I will definitely write you all about my first 4 days, but later. I really want to tell you about the hiking experience I had not far from Veil.

Me and my best friend Sima who always takes care of me in Denver. I adore her. By the way, we are from the same city in Russia. I know her for 10 years already.

So, on the 4th day my friend Igor came to pick me up, he lives in Breckenridge, the distance between Denver and Breckenridge about 1 hour and 40 minutes. Who doesn’t know about that cute city, it has a huge ski resort, many mountain bike trails and I always wanted to visit it. Dreams come true! Igor moved there about 2-3 years ago as well. And he can walk from his house to the slopes, easily. Isn’t that awesome?!

Also, the elevation of Breckenridge is 9,600 feet (2,926 meters) above sea level. It’s pretty high for the person who lives in Virginia. You might ask, why do I write those numbers? The thing is if you’ve never been in Breckenridge or in the mountains in Colorado (and you are from the east coast), you will notice that the first couple days your nose will bleed a little, it’s all because of the high altitude, and plus there’s less oxygen in the mountains. So, don’t panic, it’s normal and painless. It was a good idea that I stayed the first four days in Denver, because my body got used to the altitude and I didn’t really feel anything in Breckenridge.

We decided to go hiking on my second day, it was 3 of us – me, Igor and his roommate Bill. The trail we picked “Shrine Ridge” was just an hour away from Breckenridge. It was very easy hike, only 4 miles, but I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, gorgeous landscape with the mountains on the background and colorful flowers at front… I was saying “Thank you the Universe that I’m here!” every 5 minutes, because I was very grateful that I have eyes to see this beautiful part of the world, and I was thankful to my dearest friends who took me there, truly…

Here is a small part of the trail. We met some other hikers on our way. Please watch the video.

After walking for about 1.5 miles we literally opened our mouths when we saw this beautiful scenery…

After another mile the view started changing – we saw more stones and red rocks… The trail started to become more scenic.

Here we decided to take a break and have a little lunch. Surprisingly, we were not alone, there were a lot of chipmunks around. And they were very friendly, I’ve never seen anything like that before. When I go hiking in Virginia, chipmunks are usually afraid of people, you can’t really catch them. But here, there were curious, shameless… and very fluffy. I could even pet them. Cute little chipmunks.

Please watch the video.

We decided to climb this “red tower” after our break. Igor and Bill do a lot of rock climbing, so it was a piece of cake for them, but it was my first climbing experience. I was a little scared to be honest, there was no safety, but I did it anyways. Just some tiny scratches left, and good memories.

I also noticed that one of the chipmunks was following me. Cute fearless fluffy baby. I decided to take a selfie with him. He also tried to conquer that red rock, so funny 😊

We took slightly different path back, we followed our heart and intuition. I love that spontaneity. I took an easy sitting pose (or “Sukhasana” in yoga language) and said “Thank you” to mother nature for having us. And why wouldn’t I?! Look at this fairyland!

State: Colorado
The closest cities: Vail, Frisco, Breckenridge
Name of the trail: Shrine Ridge Trail
Time: about 2.5 hours
Elevation: 11,900 feet (3.6 km)
Length: 4 miles (6.4 km)
Coordinates for parking: 39.54538, -106.24219

!steemitworldmap 39.589816 lat -106.274872 long Beautiful Trail near Breckenridge. d3scr

Have a great hiking!!!

1. Sugarloaf Mountain Hike/ Maryland.
2. August 21st - solar eclipse in Virginia, next one will come in 2024 (from Russian immigrant)
3. Assateague Island – on a mission to find peace …
4. Hiking in Great Falls, along the Potomac River.
5. White Oak Canyon and Cedar Run Trail/Hiking in Shenandoah National Park.

1. Гора Sugarloaf в Мэрилэнд (США)
2. 21 августа - солнечное затмение в Вирджинии, следующее запланировано в 2024 году.
3. Остров Assateague – в поисках гармонии…
4. Смотрите что вам покажу. Хайк в Great Falls вдоль реки Потомак, США.
5. Трэйл White Oak Canyon вдоль горной речки Cedar Run в Вирджинии.
6. Жажда пеших походов или хайкинг в горном Колорадо.