It’s been a long time since I posted something new on these
pages. It’s not that I have been
inactive. If you follow my Facebook
page, you have seen fairly regular photos from outings over the past
months. Most of my outings have been to
places I already wrote about in the blog and didn’t find it necessary to write
about again.
I’ve also been quite busy since the last blog post. Our Colorado home was for sale. It finally sold in the spring. That was a time consuming and stressful
process that left less focus on my blog and a little less time for exploring
new places. A particularly snowy winter
also made travel in the high country more risky.
Selling the house, we naturally moved. This wasn’t a regular local move. We relocated back to the east. We now live in the heart of New York’s
Adirondack Mountains.
This post features a different style than I normally
use. Rather than writing about a
specific place, this post reflects on my outdoor experiences during my five
years living in Colorado.
Hiking
I have hiked all over the US prior to moving to
Colorado. Despite this, more than a
decade passed since I was west of the Mississippi. Colorado is a great place to be based for
those that hike.
Living in Maine prior to Colorado, I started to grow bored
of the hiking. I repeated visits to the
better destinations. In Colorado I was
faced with a different problem. The
choices where to hike were a bit overwhelming, especially in the beginning.
Maine and New England had a fairly narrow choice of peaks to
choose from when seeking an alpine experience.
In Colorado, alpine opportunities are endless. In addition to the 50+ 14,000 foot peaks,
there are 700+ 13,000 foot peaks, and more 12,000 foot peaks that rise above
treeline. Pretty much anywhere near my
home in Colorado, including my house, you could look at snow-covered peaks
As a backpacker, I could have spent many years exploring new
areas. While Maine had the AT and
Grafton Loop, cobbling together longer trips was somewhat of a challenge without
traveling to New Hampshire and Vermont.
Much of the land in Colorado is public, whether National Forest or
BLM. These areas are laced with
thousands of miles of trails. While some
make great day hiking, many can be tied together for multiday backpacking
trips. During my five years in Colorado,
I ventured out on six multiday trips ranging from 46-160+ miles. On these trips I ventured into impressive
wilderness areas including, the Collegiate Peaks, Uncompahgre, West Elk, Maroon
Bells-Snowmass, Dominguez Canyons, and Weminuche Wildernesses.
Mountain Biking
While great hiking opportunities seem endless in Colorado, I
have found great mountain biking everywhere as well.
Mountain biking in Colorado is something that I’ll really miss. I was lucky
enough to live close to a plethora of trails.
The variety was difficult to beat as well. Within an hour or less from my house, I could
choose between desert, alpine, and forest terrain. Unlike other places I have lived, mountain
bike advocacy groups worked aggressively to add new terrain in Colorado. As a
result, there is purpose built, singletrack trails everywhere. Best of all, I didn’t have to wait for a short
window of summer weather. Due to the dry
climate, several riding areas were open nearly year round.
Salida was my home base for riding and just over 20 minutes
from my house with a fun trail system right in town. In the fringe season, I was just an hour from
Cañon City and their ever growing trail systems that were often rideable in
winter. Pueblo Reservoir also featured
riding nearly year round on 30+ miles of trails within two hours. In summer the alpine riding opened up
nearby. The Monarch Crest was less than
an hour away and a renowned destination with miles of alpine singletrack. Crested Butte was just two hours away for
endless alpine riding. And if I needed a
desert fix, Fruita was close enough to be ride on a whim. While I have always been able to find
mountain biking opportunities no matter where I lived, living in Colorado will
be hard to beat.
Skiing
While Colorado has plenty of skiing opportunities, I never
quite took full advantage of it while living there. I didn’t live close enough to the big resorts
to take advantage of the season pass deals.
Otherwise, the day tickets have grown to expensive for me to visit most
ski areas for a day.
My downhill skiing was limited to Salida’s local ski area,
Monarch Mountain. I took advantage of
deals and locals selling tickets. In my
experience, the snow was reliable and the terrain decent. The mountain was fairly small though and it
wasn’t too difficult to grow bored.
I also cross country ski.
Close to my house, the cross country skiing wasn’t too reliable. I occasionally traveled to the high country
for cross country skiing. Unfortunately,
most of that skiing involved breaking deep snow. A few times I managed to hit groomed areas
away from resorts and always enjoyed it.
After living in Maine, I was spoiled with many opportunities close to
home.
Wildlife
Another big difference between Colorado and the East is the
wildlife. Growing up in Pennsylvania,
the wildlife was fairly boring.
Occasionally I would see bear, but that was the rare excitement. Moving to Maine, the wildlife opportunities
improved. A moose sighting was a fairly
common occurrence along with the occasional bear and plentiful bald
eagles.
In Colorado, the wildlife is much more spectacular. Mule deer, although that not exciting were
thoroughly abundant. It was more rare to
not see one than actually see one on a given day. Anywhere I traveled required driving through
Bighorn Sheep Canyon. Let’s just say,
the canyon went by that name for a reason.
After deer, bighorn sheep were the most common wildlife I would
see. On occasion, I would see elk during
my daily run from my house. In the fall,
you could hear the elk bugling from our house.
Large herds were not unusual along the road or in the mountains. Another fairly common sight was pronghorn. Although
not wild, semi-free range bison lived on large parcels of private land and
could be seen from the road.
In the mountains, more western wildlife could be seen. Although quite abundant, I never grew tired
of watching marmots in alpine terrain.
Not quite as abundant as the marmot, are the smaller pika. On several occasions, I was lucky enough to
see mountain goats in the high country.
On a climb of 14er Mt Antero, I came within a few feet of a large herd
that included 21 goats.
A few of the east’s big game also live in Colorado. I occasionally spotted a moose in
Colorado. On at least two occasions, I
spotted black bear on my own property.
Just as elusive in the west as the east, I crossed paths with
martens. Bald Eagles were a common sight
along the Arkansas River.
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A nice bull moose in the Weminuche Wilderness |
Neighboring Areas
Another aspect of Colorado that I will miss is its proximity
to other great destinations. I didn’t
take advantage of this as much as I would have liked. While living there however, I did travel to
the mountains of New Mexico to backpack.
I mountain biked and hiked in Moab, Utah. I hiked in the Tetons of Wyoming. These are all a reasonable day’s drive.
I also visited the mountains of Idaho and Montana to
mountain bike and hike as part of a road trip within a day’s drive from my
Colorado home. I didn’t take advantage
of it but I could have driven to Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, and Yellowstone
National Parks as well as all points in between from my home if I wanted
to. There aren’t that many A List
destinations for an outdoor enthusiast within a reasonable drive from anywhere
I lived in the east
I’ll certainly miss Colorado’s outdoor playground, however,
living in the Adirondacks is a great opportunity. I have explored, to some extent, most of the
bigger mountainous areas of the eastern US.
The Adirondacks are new to me however.
Except for a day skiing at Gore Mountain, this is all new terrain for
me. The Adirondacks encompass some 6
million acres, about the size of Vermont.
I have 2000 miles of trail, hundreds of mountains, thousands of bodies of
water, and thousands of miles of streams and river to explore that is entirely
new to me, and I live near the middle of it.
I live within sight of a large lake and can hear loons from my house- a
sound I have missed. At night I have
listened to the chorus of peepers in the surrounding woods, another sound not
heard in the west..
While not Colorado, the Adirondacks aren’t the worst place
to be to experience nature and the outdoors.
Living in Colorado had been a great experience that I will never forget
and will definitely return to explore again.
If you enjoyed reading this post, check out and "LIKE" Tomcat's Outdoor Adventures on Facebook. You will be notified when I have a new blog and I post there more often and revisit past adventures.
If you enjoyed reading this post, check out and "LIKE" Tomcat's Outdoor Adventures on Facebook. You will be notified when I have a new blog and I post there more often and revisit past adventures.
You can hear peeper-like choruses in the spring in occasional ephemeral ponds in Colorado.
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