The mountains are my happy spot! There is absolutely nothing better than grabbing the family or friends and heading up to some peace and quiet! Work and day to day life can get stressful and the mountains can erase all of that!
This summer I had big plans to hike all over Colorado and somehow, I only hiked once. I did make it to the mountains quite a bit to fish, camp, and hang out, but only once did I hike! I think this mainly happened because my kids are at an awkward age to hike. My son is getting too heavy for a backpack carrier and my daughter does not want to walk for very long. Plus some of the more difficult hikes that I like to do, are not for small children.
But, even though I didn’t hike that much this year, I have hiked so much in Colorado over the years!
Colorado is one of the best places to hike. There are so many different hikes and so many different difficulty levels! This means there is a hike for everyone! Remembering all the hikes I have done has made it really hard to pick only five hikes that are my favorite. But I have finally narrowed it down and here they are:
5. Crystal Mills
This hike is a little bit different and not necessarily a hike. Crystal Mills is one of the most photographed places in Colorado and even if you don’t know the name Crystal Mills, I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures. The Crystal Mill is located outside of Marble, Colorado.
I say this isn’t necessarily a hike because I would recommend a 4×4 vehicle to get to the actual mill. The first time I attempted to see Crystal Mills was on my Honeymoon. My husband and I took our Durango up to Marble, Colorado and tried to make it up to the mill. Our Durango did not have enough clearance to make it all the way. A year later, we went back to Marble for our one year anniversary and rented a four wheeler. They do tons of four wheeler rentals up to Crystal Mills and it’s so easy!
The trail up to the Mill follows a river and has beautiful scenery. No matter how you get up there, the view at the top is worth it! The Mill is absolutely gorgeous and the pictures are idyllic.
4. Echo Lake
One of the first hikes my husband I did together was Echo Lake. This lake is beautiful and if you make it there on a clear day, you can get some amazing pictures of the lake with Mt. Evans reflected in the water! Echo Lake Trail is simply a quarter mile loop around the lake. It is incredibly easy and takes about fifteen minutes.
An amazing feature of Echo Lake is that it has many other trailheads so there are multiple hikes you can take. There is even a trail to make it to the summit of Mt. Evans! This is a 14er so I would advise not doing this trail unless you are fully prepared!
My Husband and I decided to hike the Chicago Lakes Trail. I loved this hike because it has some pretty wooded areas and you get to hike through a lot of trees. The day we went it was cloudy and overcast and it just added to the aesthetics of the hike! There are also multiple lakes to hike to!
Echo Lake is rated as difficult on most trail reviews. I would say that it has more of a medium difficulty. I did this hike when I was pregnant with my daughter.
3. Maroon Bells
I absolutely loved this hike when Justin and I did it last year for our anniversary. This hike is located about ten miles outside of Aspen. I do have to warn you, this hike is incredibly popular in Colorado and people come from all over to see it! When my husband and I went, we got there around 6am and the parking lot was almost full. When we made our way back to the parking lot, there were so many people it was hard to move through them all.
Regardless of the amount of people there, Maroon Bells is beautiful! When you begin at the trailhead there is a lake and a lot of times you can see beavers! If you continue hiking you can make it up to Crater Lake. This hike is not difficult and is only about 3.5 miles out and back.
Crater Lake is worth the hike. It sits in between two mountain peaks! I will have to tell you that you need to be careful when you hike this trail because when we went in October, the lake was drained and had barely any water. I want to go back and do this hike in the summer when the lake is full. Also, if you do not want to hike in snow, make sure you do this hike in the summer. In October there was so much snow that both Justin and I fell on our asses plenty of times!
2. Fish Creek Falls
I can not say enough good things about Fish Creek Falls! This hike is breath taking! It is located in Steamboat Springs and has multiple waterfalls and a lake.
When you arrive at Fish Creek Falls, it is only a quarter of a mile hike to the first falls! The path is gravel and incredible easy. The first water fall is the most popular one. It is gorgeous and it is big! You will find a lot of people here taking pictures or simply hanging out near the water. Stacking rocks has become a big to do there in the summer. In the winter, the water fall freezes but it’s still worth it to see!
During the winter, you can’t really access the trail up to the second waterfall or the lake unless you want to hike it with snow shoes. I hiked up to the second waterfall during the summer with one of my friends but we did not go all the way up to the lake. I would like to go back and go to the lake! The trail is filled with aspen trees and isn’t overly difficult. The trail kind of wanders off in a couple places so we had to keep asking people if we were going the right way.
The second water fall is worth the hike, and I think the lake would be worth it too, but I’ll have to report back on that when I actually do it! I love waterfalls so I always think they are worth it! Not a lot of people hike to the second waterfall so it’s very peaceful and if you really wanted to, you could probably get in the pools of water. Regardless of if you hike up to the second falls or not, seeing the first falls is incredible!
1. Ouzel Lake
Okay, here it is! My favorite hike in Colorado: Ouzel Lake! I recently did a whole post about Ouzel Falls and Ouzel Lake because I actually just hiked it a couple weeks ago with my friend!
When I originally planned this hike with my friend, we planned on only hiking to Ouzel Falls. I didn’t even realize there was a lake to hike to. Once we got to the falls, we decided to keep going up to the lake because someone on the trail told us it would be worth it!
If you are wanting an easy hike to do, I highly recommend Ouzel Falls. The hike up to the falls is pretty easy and you get to see three waterfalls and you follow a river almost the whole way. It’s gorgeous scenery and so peaceful! The hike all the way to the lake is a bit more difficult. There were steep portions that I thought would never ever end! I am so happy we made the hike up to the lake though because it has become my new favorite spot!
Not very many people make it up to the actual lake. We found that some people even stop at the first falls. The hike to the lake is about eleven miles there and back. I am pretty sure this is why most people do not go all the way. The only thing that bummed me out about this hike is that I didn’t bring my fishing pole to fish at the top!
In the future, I would really like to backpack into this lake so I can fish and camp the night!
I hope you have found these hikes inspiring and I would love to hear your favorite hikes!