Sunday, June 27, 2010. I found a fantastic hike up Red Rocks and Mount Sanitas that you can do from our doorstep. So when I got home I recruited Kyoko and Kyle to do it with me, and brought my camera this time, alone with a liter of water and a liter of gatorade, and some snacks. First we start walking down Marine Street.
Red Rocks in the distance. This will be our first destination.
We enter Fine Park.
Boulder Creek in Fine Park.
Boulder Creek.
An underpass under Boulder Canyon Road leads to Settlers Park.
Red Rocks come into view.
Looking back toward Green Mountain and the Flatirons.
It will be fun to come back here and just scramble around on the rocks.
Our main objective: Mount Sanitas, elevation 6863 feet.
The Mount Sanitas Trail up the west side of the mountain is a popular time trial. My first time that morning I made it up in 24:27, and I'm eager to see how much faster I can go. I passed a kid around Kyle's age who did it in 38+ minutes, so I challenged Kyle to do it in under 40. He started out strongly....
The early portion of the trail is wooden stairs, so easy going. The trail climbs almost 1300 feet in 1.2 to 1.3 miles, so it is very steep. What's more, there are several fairly flat and even slightly downhill sections, so to make up for it there are some extremely steep sections. I loved it, but sadly Kyle did not.
Here the trail gets rocky and steeper.
Some of the views from lower down.
Trails for the return trip.
The trail gets steeper.
I think this may have been the first view of the true summit, in the distance.
Kyle lost his energy and I had to force him to keep going.
More views.
Toward Indian Peaks Wilderness.
Kyle finally made it up in 1:05, and Kyoko got up a minute later. He was upset with me for pushing him to keep going. We relaxed on the top for a while while I took pictures.
From the summit. It was hard to find an unblocked view west.
Green Mountain.
Downtown Boulder and CU.
Toward the north.
Finally we headed down the steep East Ridge trail.
The trail is confusing just past this huge boulder, where it goes left but it is not at all obvious.
Past the hardest part, and heading down.
You can see the switchbacks leading down to the parallel Sanitas Valley trail (the thicker nearer trail) and the Dakota Ridge trail. We used the former trail both times.
Kyle got his energy back and felt much better. He claims he hates going up and loves going down, which is the opposite of my preference.
Looking back up the mountain.
On the wide Sanitas Valley Trail. It reminds me of the Mission Peak trail but is much less steep, only about 8%. There were a lot more people on it earlier in the day.
A couple huge helicopters passed by overhead.
Descending the final stretch.
We then had our final part of the hike, and Kyoko's favorite, walking by big beautiful homes in the historic neighborhoods.
Pictures don't do it justice, unfortunately.
The smallest, saddest park I've ever seen. On Pearl Street.
Pearl Street between 4th and 6th.
Getting closer to home.
A fantastic hike with enormous variety. 5.3 miles when I did it (the map is of my route), and 5.5 registered the second time with Kyoko and Kyle (we took a slightly different route). 1:31 for me, and 3:24 for the family. I'll be doing this one often!
