Colorado Trail: Segment 17 Out-and-Back Hike

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This is a nice, forested hike where you may see some thru-hikers. The trail is long as it's a section of the 567-mile Colorado Trail, and unless you're backpacking, it's a lot to do in a day. The whole trail is a beautiful out-and-back, so feel free to choose your distance and enjoy the ride.

Turn off of Highway 114 and drive as far as you want on the logging road; there are a handful of camping options along the way. Park just inside the Rio Grande National Forest boundary.

Right after you start walking, there's a trailhead on the left for the 'Baldy Lake Trail', take that singletrack path into the woods.

You start gaining elevation right away but it's pretty gradual. Pretty quickly you change from an aspen forest to a bristlecone pine forest. This trail offers some really incredible views just a short way into the trail. The path is really beautiful, very peaceful, and very easy to follow.

This trail is part of the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail so it sees plenty of use and is pretty well maintained.

Every glimpse through the trees, you can see a sea of more trees, and it's a beautiful thing. The trail is pretty hilly, with lots of gains and losses in elevation. In the forest, you might even find some wild raspberries to snack on, if the critters haven't found them first.

There are quite a few flat spots for camping along the way. Even if you don't want to hike the whole distance, you can still do an out-and-back day hike of a length of your choice.

6 miles one-way is pretty nice for a total of 12 miles and around 2,850' of gain.