Well let's start by saying this hike almost didn't happen for us! We woke up Sunday morning and as we were gathering our things to head out the door, I happened to glance out the front window and notice lingering rain clouds in the direction we planned go. Thankfully it was just an early morning shower passing through and we had a nice window to get out and enjoy the trails before the afternoon storms came back.
We had a friend in town this weekend so decided not to venture out too far. Still undecided where to go, we set off on the highway as I looked up trails on trails.com and I settled on a portion of the Colorado Trail just south of Conifer. As we parked our car and started packing up the packs, there were already a handful of bikers that rode by, a warning about this part of the trail we planned to set out on. And after the 15 minutes it takes to wrangle kids and all that comes with them to go hiking, we were off!
The Colorado Trail at this point goes east and west across Deckers Rd and we chose to hike west, the same side we parked on. Shortly after the hike began there's a turn-off up a hill that leads to spectacular views. We chose to go up there first for some family photo ops (it's always an idea if you're are hiking with kids to try and get some pictures first because there's a good chance they'll be sleeping or cranky at the end of the hike).
After our pit-stop on the hill, we headed back down to the trail to start our hike. I don't think we walked .5 miles and we came up to a junction for a trail called the Buffalo Burn Loop. Undecided if we should continue on the Colorado Trail or take this new trail, we left it up to our 3 year old to decide which way to go and he selected the loop trail. This trail started out through a burn area which yielded some amazing views of nearby mountains. And once you make your way through the burn area, you finally enter a forested area where you go in and out of shade until you loop back up with the Colorado Trail.
All in all the trail was 3 miles round trip and perfect for toddlers or out-of-state guests as it has very minimal elevation change with amazing views. Highly recommend...just remember sunscreen!
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