{"id":3506,"date":"2016-06-07T20:10:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-07T20:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/?p=3506"},"modified":"2016-06-07T20:13:41","modified_gmt":"2016-06-07T20:13:41","slug":"first-real-hike-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/2016\/06\/07\/first-real-hike-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"First “Real” Hike of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

We did a fair amount of hiking while we were in Bolivia and we also walk thirty to sixty minutes every day, but this weekend was the first chance we’ve had to get out and go for a hike in the mountains this year. Mostly because we’ve been travelling as well as the poor weather that we’ve had this spring, but at last we were able to do one of the things that we love about summertime in Colorado.\u00a0 We are very fortunate to be able to drive thirty minutes or less and be in the mountains with all of the beauty that they offer.\u00a0 This is one of our favorite hikes as it isn’t too strenuous and offers the opportunity to hike for as long or as short as we would like since there is an entire interconnected trail system.<\/p>\n

\"Start<\/a>
Start of the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of the Stream by the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ducks<\/a>
Ducks on the Lake<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Aspen<\/a>
Aspen Tree against the Sky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Part<\/a>
Part of the Side Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The trail is called the Palmer Lake Reservoir Trail and\u00a0is located just outside of the little town of Palmer\u00a0Lake.\u00a0 The main trail\u00a0follows a stream that is the run-off from the reservoirs, which was running pretty swiftly at this time of year\u00a0as there is still snow melting in the high country.\u00a0 It\u00a0takes you past the two\u00a0man-made lakes that provides fresh water to the town of Palmer Lake as well as fishing opportunities for those willing to make the hike.\u00a0 We’ve done this hike dozens of times and it never ceases to please us.\u00a0 As with most trails in the mountains, despite the fact that the parking lot was\u00a0full and we\u00a0even had to park in the overflow parking lot, which was also full, we rarely saw anyone else on the trail with us.\u00a0 Getting away from people and\u00a0connecting with nature is one of the main reasons we like to hike, it is so serene to hike through the woods, listening to the breeze blow through the trees above, and seeing all of the various wildflowers that grow throughout the area.<\/p>\n

\"Yellow<\/a>
Yellow Wildflowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wildflowers<\/a>
Wildflowers Growing on Boulders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Fallen<\/a>
Fallen Tree by the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Blue<\/a>
Blue Wildflowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View of the Upper Reservoir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a beautiful day with the typical bright blue skies of Colorado.\u00a0 We pushed ourselves as far as a first\u00a0hike of the season, going for a full two hours and four miles round-trip.\u00a0 Perhaps because of the hiking that we did in Bolivia, it didn’t seem like too much of\u00a0a strain, despite the gain in altitude.\u00a0\u00a0To be fair, if you ever read descriptions of hiking trails in the mountains, you’ll often see them described as\u00a0“moderate”, but any hike in the mountains is going to be strenuous at times, so\u00a0we usually take the rating lightly and judge for ourselves the difficulty of a trail.\u00a0 With that said, this really is a moderate trail for anyone used to hiking at altitude.\u00a0 The trail starts at about 2,200 meters (6,700 feet) and\u00a0gains about a 700 meters (2,200 feet) depending\u00a0on which side trail you decide to take, but it gains less if you just hike up to the second reservoir.<\/p>\n

\"Heading<\/a>
Heading Back Down<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Gorgeous<\/a>
Gorgeous Views<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Upper<\/a>
Upper Reservoir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Clear<\/a>
Clear Blue Sky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Side Trail that We Took<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was great to get back into the mountains and do some hiking, we’re really looking forward to a full season of exploring new trails.\u00a0 It is going to be a busy travel season for us, but when we’re not on the road, we want to get out and hike as much as possible.\u00a0 We live in a gorgeous state and a beautiful part of the country, so we want to take advantage of every opportunity to explore it, even after living here for over twenty years.\u00a0 If you ever get a chance to visit Colorado during the spring, summer, or fall, get up into the mountains and do some hiking.\u00a0 Despite how strenuous hiking can be, it is also extremely relaxing and definitely recharges our batteries.<\/p>\n

\"Part<\/a>
Part of the Trail<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Lower<\/a>
Lower Reservoir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"View<\/a>
View as You Get Close to the Upper Reservoir<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Boulders<\/a>
Boulders and Pine Trees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We did a fair amount of hiking while we were in Bolivia and we also walk thirty to sixty minutes every day, but this weekend was the first chance we’ve had to get out and go for a hike in the mountains this year. Mostly because we’ve been travelling as well as the poor weather … <\/p>\n

Continue reading First “Real” Hike of the Season<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89944846,"featured_media":3518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[180,7815],"tags":[8792,594157732,594157757,18086,8123,1099,9673,436,692341,89316,16705,200],"class_list":["post-3506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colorado","category-hiking","tag-adventure","tag-colorado","tag-hiking","tag-lake","tag-mountains","tag-nature","tag-outdoors","tag-photography","tag-reservoir","tag-rocky-mountains","tag-trail","tag-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/dsc_0261.jpg?fit=6000%2C4000&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6pbM5-Uy","jetpack-related-posts":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89944846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3506"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3539,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3506\/revisions\/3539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isobaresoffit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}