Well, let me just start this post by saying I lied. I 💯 did NOT get caught up on my blog in any way, shape, or form this weekend. I actually spent three hours last night looking up pergolas and paver patios. Welcome to your thirties...it’s a wild fucking ride over here, kids.
But, it’s Sunday and I just had a nice Mother’s Day with the little and am at least going to get one more in before the new week begins. Probably.
It was my Friday off and I knew I wanted to take this opportunity to hit one of the more popular, nearby trails. At this point in the year the trails near me still had some snow, which usually thins the crowds a bit. But with good old Covid-19 restrictions in place, I’ve found that even on a chilly weekend most easy to moderate trails within thirty minutes of where I live are usually packed.
This is why I really treasure my every other Friday weekday hike. It’s hard, because I love hiking and think it’s so beneficial in so many ways...so of course more people hiking is a good thing! But at the same time, mama likes her trails uncrowded and there is that trail voice inside that just REALLY wants her peaceful time in nature in a super selfish way. With longer trails not really being an option quite yet, my Friday hikes have really helped to calm that voice down, at least a little 😉.
This seemed like a great day to hit Mount Galbraith. It’s a fairly popular hike near Golden and the weather was looking to be nice, but still a bit chilly. It had snowed recently and I knew that may deter a few people from heading out, given the trails were bound to be a bit muddy. I packed up the girls and we hit the trail around 1:30, which I assumed would be an off-time for a weekday.
We arrived at the trail head and I was pleasantly surprised to see the parking lot only about 1/4 of the way full. YEET 😎. I had been fully ready with two back up plans and was pretty excited to not have to use them.
There was a restroom at the trailhead which was open as we saw someone use it. The hike is rated as moderate tracking in at 4 miles with 928 feet of elevation gain. I’d say that rating is fair. I didn’t find it to be very challenging, but did get a good, solid workout from the incline. It’s a lollipop loop, and I’m starting to really enjoy those as every time I hike one, Lil Wayne’s, “Lollipop” automatically begins playing in my head.
The hike starts off with some fairly steep incline right away. It was pretty slushy and icy in some areas, but it had just snowed and I fully expected that (#spikes #everydamntime) I will say, as we were leaving we saw two (separate) couples wearing normal shoes and minimal clothing without backpacks. I know, I’m old AF now that I’m in my 30’s and obviously a mom, and by default super uncool- but as someone who takes a LOT of photos and loves her some gram, by all means, get them gram shots, kids. But being prepared is the COOLEST. LAYERS. APPROPRIATE SHOES. WATER. But seriously, always have the 10 essentials with you no matter the length of the hike and bring appropriate shoes and layers. Especially in Colorado with how much the weather can change from trail head to summit; layers are your friend. It will not ruin the experience, I promise.
I am so old now and am very much feeling that as I typed that out 😂. I sadly doubt the couples made it very far as they were trying to jump over water and mud within the first minutes of the trail, but seriously. Being prepared for the conditions you’re about to enter. It not only makes your hike more enjoyable, but also limits your chance of injury. We’re so lucky to live in a time where we can easily access things like trail conditions and up to date weather, take advantage!
Ok, now that I got that out of my system, the hike! I adore this hike. It has a lot of sudden incline in the beginning and the trail is pretty narrow. On this particular day, the park was nearly empty and the few people we did see were very courteous and did a great job with social distancing. The trail is also VERY open, so expect a lot of sun and sprawling views throughout. I don’t think there were many parts of this hike where I wasn’t looking around in sheer, contented mountain awe.
You start on Cedar Gulch and it’s about 1.3 miles. There’s a trail marker to indicate you’ve reached the loop portion and you can choose which way to go. I chose to go right, solely because everyone else I had seen was venturing left. The terrain changes fairly abruptly about 1/4 mile in and we were in a more forested area with some relatively deep snow. I was VERY thankful I had my spikes on at certain parts as the only real indication of a trail was two or three other individual’s tracks. There are also areas on this side that are narrow and fall off steeply. I found this area to be the most challenging part of the trail, but I don’t believe it would be very difficult without ice and snow.
The summit to Mount Galbraith is closed right now, but there were still plenty of areas near the summit which offered some great places to rest and snacc. We ended up posting up at two different spots and I think saw one other group on the loop during this hour or so period that we hung out up there. Magical ✨.
I think this hike would be really, really spectacular to do near sunset and I fully intend to hit it again once the wild flowers start a-popping. We had a blast and I would highly recommend this hike to anyone who has not yet done it. Until next time, happy hiking 🥾🏔✌🏼!
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