What better way to celebrate our presidents than to try snowshoeing for the very first time 🇺🇸? Our weekend got a little hectic, so snowshoeing got put off until Monday which actually worked out well because not everybody had Monday off! There was barely any I-70 traffic and the weather was relatively nice as well. I am in dire need of wins lately and will fully accept even the smallest of victories right now!
I have wanted to try snowshoeing for a while now and I’m not really sure what has been stopping me. I guess the lack of snowshoes and sheer laziness? Either way, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me and B to try something new together. Honestly, hiking with him in the winter has been tough because they don’t make traction for kids. We’ve been a bit limited on the hikes that we can do and if you’ve ever hiked on a really icy trail, it can get a bit...un-fun. And I don’t want him to start to dislike hiking because of this. I was hopeful that snowshoes would be a game changer for us.
Before making the financial plunge, I determined it would be best to try before I buy. And wouldn’t you know it, my home away from home REI offers snowshoe rentals. And rentals for about a million other things I wasn’t aware of, but that’s for another day. I am fortunate enough to have some REI gift card money left from Christmas (ohhhh and that dividend is so close I can TASTE it 🤤...yeah, I’m totally normal) and was able to use that to rent the shoes for me and B. We stopped at the Greenwood Village location on Sunday and picked them up for just over $30 (kids are $8 and adult $22 for the day if you’re a member). If you’re thinking about renting snowshoes for a kiddo, just note the smallest size they have is 19 inches and that was definitely too big for his five year old feet, but we made it work.
Because this was the first time for both of us, I wanted to make sure to pick an easy trail that I was familiar with. I was anxious to get up in the mountains and out of my hood as it had been a while and when I found Echo Lake on AllTrails I knew that was it! I had walked around Echo Lake this summer after finishing the Chicago Lakes Trail so I knew the area and felt confident that this would be a good place for our first attempt.
AllTrails has Echo Lake rated as easy and that is most definitely accurate. The trail itself is completely flat and is listed as having only 68 feet of elevation gain. AllTrails says it’s only 1.3 miles but I clocked it at a little over 2, so I’m not sure if we just wandered around a lot or it’s actually that much longer. Either way a perfect trail and length to try snowshoeing on.
There isn’t an actual parking lot so you park on the side of the street. There are bathrooms, but they most definitely do not have doors if you need that in your life. When we got to the trailhead, there was plenty of room to park. After we got out we strapped on our snowshoes, which was super easy, and were ready to rock. I did have to get a bit creative strapping Breccan in with how big his were, but again, made it work. They still functioned great and he was pretty jazzed to have these new contraptions on his feet.
The first part of the trail after the lake area is pretty well shaded as you’re walking through the forest. We played at the trail head for quite a bit as the lake is frozen over and we were just goofing around on it whilst fruit snacking (this could’ve been where the extra mileage came in). If you’re taking a little one up there just make sure to bundle up as it does get windy. He ended up wanting to unzip his jacket, but taking off layers is a lot easier than having a frozen crab apple of a child on your hands.
There snowshoes themselves were pretty cool and B enjoyed making and naming “new trails” next to the actual trail. I would love to try the shoes out in deeper conditions to see what they could really do but I was definitely able to hike in areas where my spikes alone would not have cut it. When you get to the halfway point of the trail, you come out into the open in the parking lot of an inn, which is a little strange. The remainder of the trail loops back on the actual road which is why I think a lot of people turn back and go the way they came. We continued with the loop and were still walking in snow that was deep enough to snow shoe in, but had I been alone I would have definitely turned around and went back the way we came in.
Snowshoeing, check! And it definitely won’t be the last time. It was pretty cool today as we were doing his homework one of the areas asked him to describe an event or something he did over the weekend and he chose to write and draw about his snowshoeing experience. I always worry that he just does these things or says he likes them to make me happy but it seems as though he’s becoming quite the little avid outdoorsman. Which makes me one very, very happy mama :). Until next time, happy hiking ✌🏼❤️🥾.
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