Hike 11: Gravel Ponds

With a three day weekend and only one nice day I knew I wanted to make Saturday as hike-filled as possible. With the impending snow coming to Summit County, and the avalanche warnings I decided to stay and soak up the local sun.

Fortunately when you live in Littleton there are plenty of local hiking options less than thirty minutes away. Chatfield State Park is about 20 minutes from where I live and I decided to take the ladies there for a morning hike 🐶 🐶.

I’ve been to Chatfield a ton of times but don’t usually go to hike. It‘s a great place in the summer to lounge by the reservoir and hammock, but I haven’t really explored the trails. This was one of those rare occasions when I didn’t have a plan in place because Chatfield is so close to me and I figured we could just wander until we found something that looked hikeable as it had recently snowed and I was hoping snow shoes wouldn’t be necessary everywhere.

We ended up pulling over in the parking lot for Gravel Ponds. The snow didn’t look very deep and I figured it would be about a 2 mile hike which is perfect with both dogs when they have to be on leash. Charli is phenomenal off leash, but gets anxiety on and Navi...well, she’s still a puppy and quite spirited 🤪). I had been in this area of Chatfield before for kayaking and it’s absolutely beautiful in the summer around sunset time. It looked completely different covered in snow and I was excited as it looked like there were only one set of tracks around the lake, but the snow wasn’t so deep that my boots couldn’t handle it.

Most of Chatfield is completely flat, as it was with this hike. It was very easy and my only real challenge was the snow and reigning in two puppers. That got particularly difficult after our only trail encounter of three horseback riders. NavI had never seen horses before and she was… excited, to put it mildly.

Despite the riled pup, we all got our dose of fresh air. Even though it wasn’t the mountains proper, it was so refreshing to finally be back outside stomping around in some snow next to a beautiful pond with the mountains in the background. So much so, that I decided I would go for another hike that afternoon. Hey, sometimes you have to get it in when you can! Happy hiking, people ❤️✌🏼🥾.