Hiking at Golden Gate Canyon State Park

Panorama Point

 With a weather forecast for snow later this week, we decided to take advantage of another beautiful sunny Colorado day to get in another hike in the front range of the Rocky Mountains. We chose Golden Gate Canyon State Park because the dogs are permitted to hike with us there. From Panorama Point there is a view of over 100kms of the continental divide, which is currently stunning with the blue mountains covered in white snow at their peaks.

 Henry and Ebony LOVED hiking! They were dragging Matt around by the lead the whole way around the 2.5mile hike. The hike we chose was classified as moderate, it involved 500 feet of elevation gain and the starting point is over 9000ft above sea level, so the air is reasonably thin (Denver is at 5280 ft & Perth is almost at sea level), so my scar riddled lungs struggled on the hike back up out of the canyon and my legs were already tired from our 4 miles of hiking yesterday, but Matt fortunately took the leashes so I could focus on getting myself up the canyon rather than on managing the excited dogs. We all enjoyed the hike immensely.

 There was a lot of snow on the ground due to the elevation but the trail has had plenty of other hikers on it, so once we found the trail head we were able to follow the footprints in the snow to navigate:)

 About 2 miles into the hike we were confronted with a frozen creek to cross, we considered hiking back the way we had come or deviating from the trail to find a narrower crossing, but just as we were deciding what to do another hiker who was familiar with the trail came along and crossed the creek explaining that there is actually a bridge under the ice so it is relatively safe. It however did NOT look safe so we were pleased to witness that it was actually safe to cross.

 From the opposite side of the creek the bridge was more visible underfoot. It is a weird feeling to cross a frozen creek and feel ice cracking underfoot!!!!!! It was very slippery too!

It was a wonderful day and we can't wait to take visitors back to this spectacular spot.