For hike number nine this weekend me and the little man went to Castlewood Canyon with some moms and kiddos from a Facebook group.
Wait, what? Friends from a Facebook group? Sounds kind of crazy, right? But honestly these days for someone who doesn’t have a whole lot of time on their hands to socialize, social media groups are by far the easiest way to find people who are interested in the same things you are. Kind of like online dating, only not the absolute worst.
I’ve met some really amazing women through camping and hiking trips with members of the Women Who Hike Colorado Chapter and figured I’d give it a go to find some cool moms to hang with (ok, I even feel weird typing that, thirsty for mom friends over here 😂). I’ve honestly never been the best at making female friends in General and I’m somehow even worse at making mom friends (surprise I’m not even kind of close to a Pinterest mom, shocking, I know) 💁🏼♀️.
So I took the plunge and joined a hiking moms group on Facebook. When the admin of the group posted a hike for last weekend and I didn’t have any solid plans for that morning, it was go time.
We ended up meeting two other moms and their three littles at Castlewood Canyon. This park is SUPER kid friendly and the hike even had a playground and picnic areas near the parking lot. For an absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning, there were plenty of spots in the parking lot and the trail wasn’t anywhere near as crowded as I’d expected. There were restrooms at the trailhead, but they are “seasonally closed,” so plan accordingly or don’t and enjoy that nature squat 😂!
The loop ended up being around two miles with all the wandering we did. AllTrails has it with 200ft elevation gain and there are some stairs near the end that were a little difficult for the kiddos due to ice. Other than that part, traction really never crossed my mind which is straight nutty given it’s February in Colorado.
The loop has lots of cool things to check out. There are bridges and caves which the kids loved exploring. There’s also a really cool river that runs through the trail, which is likely very pretty in the summer. Because we had three kids walking and one strapped baby, the trail took a while but it was a ton of fun!
Watching my son learn to love the outdoors as much as I do is one of the reasons I hike. It’s so cool to see him engrossed in nature and not stuck behind a screen. Taking him into nature is probably the closest I can get him to what it was like growing up before cell phones and the Internet existed in every household. He’s going though such a different experience than what I did growing up...strange to compare the two even.
I definitely want to try and continue to have him hike with other kids more because I could see how much fun he was having exploring the outdoors with people who were on his level. And honestly it’s SO nice to get some time with moms who actually enjoy the same things I do, which has been hard to find, even in Colorado. Also, you can always rely on another mom to give you some fruit snacks when you run out, which is a nice added perk 😉. Until next time, happy hiking 🏔❤️✌🏼.
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