Eldorado Canyon SP

The (stupid) weather forecast has predicted thunderstorms every day for the last few weeks (including today). It's really translated to about 15 minutes of nastyness late in the afternoon each day, but blue skies the remainder of the day. So the predict today said 11 am the storms could arrive, so we hit the trail early (8 am).

The view from the Rattlesnake Gulch trail

We drove up between Golden and Boulder to Eldorado Canyon State Park. We started off on the Fowler train and continued on the Rattlesnake Gulch trail. This trail climbed 1200 feet in less than 1.5 miles to the continental divide overlook.

Family photo op after climbing 1200' in <>

The views during the climb were wonderful! We could see the entire canyon and the eastern plains. Once we made it to the top, we took in views towards the mountains as well as the canyon walls while eating our picnic lunch.

Continental Divide Overlook, top of Rattlesnake Gulch

We took the loop portion of the trail the wrong direction (woops!) but it turned out (for us) that going up was easier than going down. The trail was pretty steep with loose rock, so it was easy to lose your step as you went down.

Cooling off in Boulder Creek

Once we finished this hike, we took the girls to the freezing cold Boulder Creek for a dip. Dave took his shoes and socks off and waded in the water with the girls. He didn't last long and nearly got frostbite because the water was so cold. Funny how the girls didn't even seem to mind! [That's huskies for you!]

A surprise cave

We finished our time at Eldorado Canyon SP by watching some rock climbers while hiking the Streamside trail. We couldn't believe how brave these climbers were. Reminded us of those climbing El Capitan in Yosemite! The end of this hike treated us with a nice little cave. The girls had a good time listening to us make loud echos.

Flatirons Vista trail outside of Boulder

The weather showed no signs of getting worse (go figure, I feel like they have consistently been wrong this summer!). So on our way home, we stopped to hike the Prairie and Flatiron Vista trails outside of Boulder. I really enjoy how different these foothills are than those by our house. We made it home by 3 pm with two sufficiently exhausted Siberians!