Manic Monday in the Mountains

Today was Monday which means, as you all know, back to the ol' grind.  The weekend has come and gone and now its time to get serious again.  So it was back to exploring the Rockies and looking for the best trails to hike and sights to see.

Eric and I left the house in the afternoon and headed West into the mountains.  Our mission: head further West than we had yet and find a good hiking trail leading to a beautiful mountainous view.  It was a daunting mission but we accepted.  We chose Genesee Park trail using one our maps we recently purchased at REI but honestly we had no idea if it was a good one or not.  In Colorado there are a ridiculous amount of trails, wildlife reserves and state parks that make finding the best ones very difficult.

After driving down Interstate 70 into the foothills of the Rockies we pulled off exit 244 for Genesse Park.  (The view from the off-ramp was probably top 5 off-ramp views in the history of off-ramps)

There was a plaza right off the exit so we stopped for directions and some advice on local hiking trails.  A kind gentleman working the floor of the shop pulled out a map and gave us a hand full of great hikes in the area.  Genesee Park was not one of them so we ditched our original plan and went with the ski shop squire's new favorite spot, Centennial Park.  Once we arrived at the park we decided to give a trail called Mayhem Gulch a try.

Mayhem Gulch involved very little mayhem but I suppose it was technically a gulch.  For those of you wondering a gulch is a "narrow and steep-sided ravine marking the course of a fast stream" (don't feel stupid we had to look it up).  The hike was about 2.5 miles one way but when we got to the top we weren't overly impressed with the view.  It was nice but to our right was a steep hill with a trail leading around it.  Since our mission from the start has involved finding the best mountainous views we decided to step off the beaten path and hike up it.  It wasn't easy and it took some serious maneuvering but we eventually got to the top.  You be the judge if we accomplished our mission.

On the way down we met a man who lived in the area and was just going for an afternoon hike.  He had been living in Colorado for over 20 years and had hiked a vast majority of the area.  He rambled off some parks to visit and when I pulled out our map he pointed out even more.  He also had some great information on ski mountains and season passes.  Thanks kind old man hiking alone!




P.S. What the hell CNN?!  Make a list of the top 25 Blogs and leave us off it?  Must have just been a classic news outlet slip-up, I'm sure we'll be on it next year.

http://techland.time.com/2012/10/22/25-best-blogs-2012/