Joy on the Trails is a blog series detailing all the incredible hiking trails within an hour of Denver. All the trails featured are accessible to anyone new to hiking, or just wanting to get out without driving for hours into the mountains. I hope you uncover your own joy of hiking and I hope you’re inspired to try a few of my favorite trails. And if you’re so inclined, join me sometime… I’m out there a lot!
Three Mile Creek Trail
My daughter and I stumbled on this trail completely by accident this fall. We were planning a high altitude hike to Silver Dollar Lake over timberline on Guanella Pass, but when we parked and got our packs on, I started having a really fast heart rate and started feeling nauseous. This is altitude sickness! Don’t ever attempt to hike with altitude sickness - and if you are hiking and have these symptoms, immediately get to lower ground. I can not stress this enough - your brain will start to play tricks on you and it can be very dangerous.
Anyway, my super cool kid didn’t make me feel bad because I trained her to be a good human, and we headed down the other side of the pass knowing we’d find something lower. And sure enough, just a few miles from Grant, CO we found Three Mile Creek trailhead. We didn’t have cell service so we couldn’t check out any details, but we decided to just head out and see what we would find.
This trail is pretty flat, mostly in the woods, and completely gorgeous! We hiked about three miles in and the trail opened up to the most gorgeous view of Mt Logan in the distance and I grabbed a pic of my daughter loving life. The woods were full of mushrooms, moss and other leafy treasures, and we even found wild strawberries to snack on.
A week or so later, I brought my hubby back here to see the leaves changing and it was a real treat. The forest had dried up, and the aspens were magical. This trail links with miles of forest land and many people backpack in. You need to sign up on a registry before entering forest land, but there’s no fee.
I am so lucky to have such fantastic hiking buddies in my family and we found a real treasure. I hope you have a chance to check it out!
Local Real Estate
If you’re looking for a home just outside the city, but a reasonable drive to still feel connected to Denver, the areas between Conifer/Indian Hills, and Grant are fantastic. You’ll be about an hour from town, you can have acreage, and most of the houses are really cute! $650k will get you something totally fantastic. You will need plenty of resources and a long due diligence period when buying in this area and I absolutely love selling homes here.
GPS Locator - here’s a link to the Google Map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Three+Mile+Creek+Trailhead/@39.4822776,-105.7124898,14z/data=!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x876baa3606f9657f:0x4c8f9bcbab3ab242!2sGuanella+Pass!3b1!8m2!3d39.5949872!4d-105.7111165!3m4!1s0x876b0196e51cdc7b:0xfd5eafa4d3b26cc!8m2!3d39.4816224!4d-105.6931659
Managed by: Colorado Forest Service
Come hiking with me!
If you want more information on this or other trails in the area, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Just like the homes I sell, I can even show it to you in person! And learn more about my Realtor life here.
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