Okay. This may be a sneaky way to get your attention but now that you are here … it could happen to you. It is getting late in the season but the snow has not yet fallen to the lowest elevations so you head out for a backpack trip that requires only a two mile [...]
The following is a somewhat true, maybe snippets of a somewhat exaggerated recounting of my experience as a hiker gone hunting. Background. It was over thirty years ago that I spent a day out with an elder neighbor friend with the plan of going bunny hunting. What I remember is that I didn’t particularly like [...]
Day Two. No time for coffee or tea. Shove in some oatmeal and pull on the same clothes as yesterday with the one extra layer I’d wished I’d had last night. The sun is still hours from rising but we have to find our spot before the elk can spot us. Yesterday, I’d learned that, [...]
Day Five. Leaving the house early, it was a 45-minute drive to the pull-over I wanted to stop. This was my third choice of where I considered the elk would be found in the midst of rifle season. Alone, and armed only with a camera, the frozen grass shared my foot prints with anyone who [...]
It often seems like this road is open a couple of weeks a year. A gate sways back not blocking the way for vehicles but that is meaningless. Vehicles can’t pass this way now anyway. In the heat of the summer (or at least as hot as it gets at 11,200-plus-feet) you can drive three [...]
When you think of Colorado the most often conjured thought are peaks jutting 14,000-feet into the Colorado blue sky. A line of rugged precipices bring “oh’s” and “ah’s” and then the gasping of breath that only climbing that elevation can bring. And while, yes, they are beautiful those of us who live here in southwest [...]
The Four Mile trail is one of Pagosa’s most popular hikes. Winding through a river valley to reach the Four Mile Falls, the trail has its ups and downs but can be classified between ‘easy’ and ‘intermediate.’ The biggest challenge for some may be the sum total 7 miles of hiking required to visit and [...]
By Stacy Boone Point A to Point B Hiking Series Wikipedia says that hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in outdoor environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. We’ve all been out there and seen the sprinters with bright white tennis shoes, the dog tired overly big backpackers, families with dawdling [...]
See this photo in enlarged format click here. Disclaimer. The commonly used trail to Pagosa Peak described here is not an official trail nor is it shown on the Forest Service map. Exercise extreme caution, travel with a good map and be careful. This map is not for navagation and is shown only to give [...]
By Stacy Boone of StepOutdoors Colorado I rather snickered to myself when I pulled into the parking lot. No one anywhere. Everything was quiet. From the trailhead to the waterfall that was plummeting hundreds of feet my only encounters would be of spider webs, nodding western red columbine and the shadows of the Englemann Spruce [...]
