Colorado Trail Thru Hike (Part 1: Waterton Canyon to Copper Mountain)

The Colorado Trail (CT) travels nearly 500 miles through Colorado from the Denver area to just outside of Durango. With an average elevation of over 10,000 feet and vast alpine stretches, it has become a popular long distance hike. Over the years, I have hiked parts of the Colorado Trail. In 2000 I hiked the first third of the trail from Denver to Twin Lakes. In 2016 I hiked the Collegiate Loop, a 160 miles of the trail that incorporates a loop between the Collegiate East and Collegiate West portions of the trail. I also backpacked part of the CT in the Weminuche Wilderness. By 2018, I hiked more than half the trail. 

I wanted to thru hike the full Colorado Trail. That was my original goal on my trip in 2000. Jump ahead to 2024, I had my opportunity to tackle the full trail. Puma and I sold our house in the Adirondacks and relocated to West Virginia in May. We took the summer off to work on our fixer-upper home. After several months of projects. I was ready for a break. Puma agreed, and was probably happy to get a break from me since home repair projects make my cranky. In mid July I gave myself a couple weeks to plan my trip. I arrived in Denver on August 2nd and my on trail journey began August 3rd. 

Because the daily ins and outs of a 500 mile thru hike can be uneventful, I will cover the details of my hike in a nutshell. If I wrote as thoroughly about it as my day trip or shorter backpacking trips, I think the details would become boring and take too long to write, so this is more of a synopsis of my trip. I also will break the trip into a few parts to keep it more manageable.

Tomcat at the start of the trail

I started the trail just outside of Denver at Waterton Canyon. The trail begins on a wide dirt road for the first six miles that's more like a rail trail than a mountainous hiking path. It was a Saturday morning and the area was pretty busy with a mix of cyclists, runners, and other hikers. This is the suburbs of Denver after all. 

I started hiking about 845AM after eating one last calorie bomb of a breakfast from McDonalds that I picked up on the way to the trailhead. When I hiked the portion of the trail in 2000, I remember seeing only three other backpackers during the entire 170 mile trip (I saw lots of bikes and day hikers, just not many backpackers). I saw three other backpackers in the first 5 minutes this time. The temperatures near Denver were reaching the upper 90s. In the morning, the canyon provided some shade, but as the sun climbed, much of the canyon was fully exposed to the heat. I'm guessing it was well into the 90s.

The first six miles in the canyon go by relatively quickly on the flat well-groomed road. The trail stays below 6,000' in elevation while in the canyon. The scenery still is fairly rugged looking in the canyon with scrubby vegetation covering steep mountains that rise from the South Platte River.

The road in Waterton Canyon

Along the canyon wall

Nearby mountains

South Platte River

Even though the canyon was hot and busy with other trail users, the topography makes for good bighorn sheep habitat. Near the end of the road, just before the trail leaves the canyon, the trail passes a small picnic shelter called Bighorn Sheep Rest. Across the river from the pavilion, a couple of sheep climbed above the river. A couple minutes later, another sheep ran out of the forest and passed by closely on the road. It's almost as if the sheep knew they were at Bighorn Sheep Rest. 

Bighorn sheep

Leaving the river, the trail climbs into the scrubby mountains. The mountains are more desert-like than classic Rocky Mountain scenery. The hiking was rather hot even though the trail gained a few thousand feet in elevation. I saw several more groups of backpackers over the course of the day.

Although there are several possible campsites after leaving the canyon, water is somewhat scarce. The first widely used camping spot comes when you descend back down South Platte River, 16 miles into the hike. Here a dirt road follows the river. Numerous campsites sit along the river. I arrived at the river hours before nightfall and was surprised to see how many tents were already set up. I camped by a couple I met earlier in the day, just a couple minutes above the river. There were at least 20 tents set up along the river.

My first night on the trail wasn't too pleasant. Although I drank a lot of water over the course of the day, I don't think I drank enough. I don't think it was the elevation, but the hot dry air that took its toll on me. I woke up in the night feeling quite nauseous, nauseous enough that I was worried I'd have to get off the trail in the morning. My throat, sinuses, and lungs also felt extremely dry, almost burned, from breathing in the arid air. Fortunately I felt better by the time morning rolled around. 

The next 10 miles beyond the South Platte come with a bad reputation as being hot and dry. The trail passes through an old burn area that hasn't regrown. The trail is exposed with little vegetation to provide shade. Low elevations allow for hot temperatures. There is also no water for the next 10 miles.

I got an early start and made it through the worst of the exposed area by 10AM, avoiding the worst of the heat. I was surprised to see quite a few deer in the burn area. After the burn area you reach a paved road. Within sight of the trail, you pass a fire station that allows you to use their spigot for water. I spent well over an hour in the shade along the building while staying hydrated, eating, and keeping from over heating.

Clouds started to build as I rested along the fire station. With the sun behind clouds I headed back to the trail. Soon after, the sky started to rumble and a few sprinkles fell. At this point, the sprinkles were a pleasant reprieve from the baking sun the past two days. The trail passed through a forest with better cover as well. One heavy downpour briefly fell for a few minutes, but I was able to escape the worst of it under the cover of a bathroom at a trailhead. The clouds lingered for the rest of the day, but only a few sprinkles fell. It was nice to be out of the sun. I still felt a little off throughout the day. I had little appetite and still had a little bit of an upset stomach. I didn't enjoy the day.

I camped with four others along Buffalo Creek.  I felt a little better after eating my dinner and soaking my legs in the creek. At this point my bigger issue was my water filter. Usually it will filter a liter of water in 1-2 minutes. At this point it was taking me about 20 minutes to get a liter of water filtered. I tried flushing my filter repeatedly and still got no improvement. This was after trying several times to backflush at the fire station earlier in the day.

An early viewpoint

Looking down toward the South Platte

Exposed terrain 

The following morning I had only a few miles to hike before reaching the road to Bailey, which had an outfitter. I planned to hitch into to Bailey and find a new filter. 20 minutes for 1 liter of water is not feasible for a long backpacking trip. 

I got to the road in the 8AM hour on a Monday morning. Another thru hiker, Butch was already there for a few minutes trying to get to Bailey as well. Although the FarOut comments say that Bailey is an easy hitch, we didn't find that to be the case. The road dead ends. There was very little traffic going past us on a Monday morning, and only a couple vehicles going the direction we needed to go. In the mean time the other few hikers from where I camped had reached the road.

Fortunately, I came across a solution to my filter situation without going into town. A couple hiking together, True and Melissa, each had a Sawyer Squeeze filter. Melissa's filter had a bad seal, so they were sharing one filter. Melissa gave me her filter, and I could swap the seal from my filter to make one good filter. I was back in business. Considering that only two or three vehicles passed in nearly two hours, I don't think my plan to get into Bailey was going to work. There is backpacking saying that holds true in this case, "the trail provides". Thank you True and Melissa.

Beyond the road to Bailey, the trail passes through its first Wilderness, the Lost Creek Wilderness. The first challenging climb begins here as the trail also climbs to over 10,000' for the first time. The trail passes through denser forests, and you generally escape the heat.

As a brief aside, one of my more interesting hiking experiences ever happened in the Lost Creek Wilderness on my 2000 hike through the area. While hiking along I was listening to small critter chatter, but not paying much attention. Next thing I know I was struck on the head quite hard. The blow dazed me. As I looked up I caught a glimpse of a large bird of prey flying away. It landed on a nearby branch and squawked at me as it looked my way. It was a goshawk. Apparently they can be quite territorial with a nearby nest. It came back for a second pass. Not wanting to get hit again, I ducked and put my trekking poles over my head. The bird hit the poles and perched on a nearby branch while it continued to squawk and stare me down. Not wanting to get hit again, I left the area quickly. When I couldn't hear the squawking any longer, I felt my head and found a nice gash with blood. Strangely, my hat didn't get damaged even though my head was cut open. Fortunately the cut wasn't deep.

Eventually the trail enters a long meadow for about six miles. Here the trail stays in the open while traveling near a stream and willows. In this stretch I saw moose. I was surprised to see a moose in this part of Colorado, but apparently sightings are pretty common here.

As I followed the meadow, storms started to build. I was caught in the open for several miles in what turned out to be a steady rain. Thunder and lightning accompanied the rain and at times were a little closer than I liked. I had to put on my jacket. It cooled down quite a bit.  Finally the rain let up as I neared my intended destination at the end of Segment 4 of the trail. Although it didn't rain again, the aspens around the campsite dripped through the night. It was also rather cold after the hours of rain throughout the day. There was even a little frost in the morning.

Entering the Wilderness

Meadow before the rain

The trail in the long meadow

By the fourth day on trail, the scenery begins to look a little more like what you expect in Colorado. Much of the trail travels through open meadows, but the surrounding mountains rise above treeline with the occasional patch of snow in the distance. For the most part, the trail stays above 10,000'.

While I encountered some cloud cover, I managed to avoid rain. The trail crosses Kenosha Pass and hikes along the upper reaches of South Park. Without much tree cover and plenty of sun, it was fairly hot hiking though here. I found myself at the end of the day camped along Jefferson Creek, which is a nice rushing stream.

Before Kenosha Pass

Hiking by willows

Alpine mountains in the distance

Approaching the mountains

Trail near Kenosha Pass

My campsite by Jefferson Creek

Jefferson Creek

Leaving Jefferson Creek, the trail climbs above treeline  for the first time as it crosses 11,876' Georgia Pass. I have mountain biked up Georgia Pass while I was still living in Colorado, so this area was somewhat familiar. I crossed the pass fairly early in the morning. There wasn't much sun breezy with a steady breeze. The air was quite chilly, so I didn't linger too long. The alpine terrain doesn't last too long and the trail drops nearly 2,000' after Georgia Pass.

Finally near treeline

Mount Guyot while approaching Georgia Pass

Mule deer

Back below 10,000', it was rather warm. But after a few miles, the trail climbed back above 11,000' to cooler temperatures. As the afternoon approached clouds started to build and storms started to move in. At least the trail stayed below treeline as thunder and lightning move in. I only encountered a few sprinkles at first. Eventually I descended into some meadows that were pretty exposed, and that's when the rain picked up and the lightning came a little too close for comfort. Fortunately the storms passed fairly quickly and the sun came back out.

There weren't many good options for camping with water as I approached the towns of Breckenridge and Frisco. I needed to head into one of the two towns for a resupply the following day. On paper, the best looking option appeared to be Horseshoe Gulch, about 4 miles shy of the towns. In reality, the water in Horseshoe Gulch had one of the poorest flowing sources that I had to use on the entire trail. I also had to carry whatever water I needed for the night and following morning with me to the camping area, another 1/4 mile uphill from the water source. 

Several other tents were already at the campsites. The remaining spaces weren't the flattest and were also quite sandy, making it hard for stakes to hold. It ended up storming with heavy rain and wind a couple hours after I turned in for the night leaving my tent quite wet and sandy. If nothing else this campsite sat right around the 100 mile point, so that was a nice milestone for the trip.

With only four, mostly downhill miles, I reached the road between Frisco and Breckenridge relatively early. The hike into town is somewhat strange as you leave the forest and pass literally through the backyards of condos and homes that are probably all worth over a million dollars. Meanwhile hikers, pass by, most of which haven't had a shower or slept indoors since they started the trail a hundred miles earlier.

Most Colorado Trail thru hikers visit one of the two towns. A free public bus stops at the trailhead regularly and takes you to the towns. I seemed like an outlier since I didn't stay in town overnight, but everyone else I spoke to did. I went to Frisco; bought my food for the next leg, ate as much as I could while in town, did my laundry, dried out my tent, checked in with Puma, and left town after half a day. While there are plenty of amenities in the area and they are true mountain towns, the towns don't feel like proper trail towns. These are pricey, ski and tourist towns, and I didn't have any desire to linger. I was back on the trail in the afternoon.

I hiked five miles out of town and camped at Miners Creek. This was the first night I camped alone on this trip. Other than a couple of dirt bikes that passed on a rough doubletrack that ended nearby, I enjoyed the solitude. 

View above Breckenridge

Approaching the Tenmile Range

Leaving the Frisco and Breckenridge area, the trail climbs the Tenmile Range. Even though I reached above treeline on Georgia Pass a couple days earlier, you truly enter the alpine zone in the Tenmile Range. Shortly after leaving my campsite at Miners Creek, I reached the treeline. Almost immediately I was greeted by the alpine wildlife. Marmots and pikas quickly let their presence be known with with their whistling and calls. I even saw a ptarmigan with chicks. A decent amount of wildflowers were still in bloom as well.

Pika are usually shy and hide when you spot them or get too close. At one point a pika approached me when I stopped. It climbed onto the top of my foot. I watched it for a moment while standing still, but it headed for the hills as soon as I attempted to get a picture.

Lots of marmots and pika in the rocks here

Nice gradual trail above treeline

Looking back on the trail

Pika

Another pika

Climbing over 12,000', the morning air was cool. The sky was cloudy with a steady breeze adding to the chill. When I crested the ridge at 12,491', I was instantly hit with a stiff wind. I had to put on my jacket and rain pants to fight off the chill. On the west side of the ridge, I quickly headed downhill and soon got some relief from the wind. Before I knew it I was back below treeline and it was quite warm.

Dillon Reservoir 

Wildflowers

While the Tenmile Range has some beautiful views, you are not deep in the wilderness. On the climb up, you look over Breckenridge and Frisco in the valley. Breckenridge's ski slopes and lifts are not too far from the trail. The trail runs right along the resorts boundary at the crest. On the opposite side of the ridge you look down on Copper Mountain Resort and Village with I-70 and mining ponds below. 

View from the crest

Starting to drop off the crest

Eventually you reach CO 91 just outside of Copper Mountain Resort. The trail near the resort isn't the most attractive. The trail hops between sections of woods between ski trails while overlooking the village. Work on the ski trails caused a detour through the village. When you are out to be in nature, walking through the bustle of tourists, expensive shops, and hotels isn't the ideal experience.  I passed through on a Saturday, which was probably even busier than normal, and it was strange walking through the crowds of people on vacation while I had no interest in being there. If nothing else you could eat at one of the restaurants in the village, although most accounts tell of pricey food. I made my way through the resort quickly and happily crossed my last ski trail and headed back into the forest.

Flowers near Copper Mountain

Continued in Part 2

If enjoyed this post, check out and "LIKE" Tomcat's Outdoor Adventures on Facebook where I post photos more often and revisit past adventures.