Attorneys of Colorado Springs

The Best Colorado Springs Hikes: The Colorado Mountain Club Pack Guide

Description

From the diverse scenery of its city parks to the 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak, the Colorado Springs area has hiking adventures for everyone.

The variety of hikes in the Pikes Peak region is astounding. If you are looking for an easy stroll close to town for rumination, a full-day adventure that will leave you gasping for air, or something in between, The Best Colorado Springs Hikes has 20 superb Colorado Springs trails. If you have ever wondered about that big mountain looming over town, you'll find a couple of paths to its summit. Lovers of geology can explore incredible sandstone formations in the Garden of the Gods and Red Rock Open Space, or the smooth granite of the Lost Creek Wilderness. For the less experienced, start with the Greenway Trail that wends its way along Monument Creek through downtown. On the other hand, if you have a good deal of hiking experience you can try the Barr Trail to the top of Pikes Peak--14 miles of steep hiking that is not easy and not particularly accessible.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-22
Summary: "Great trail guide"

This is an excellent, almost up-to-date trail guide to the Colorado Springs area. It is the best one (of many) that I have ever purchased. I was pleasantly surprised to see most trails welcome dogs. What a joy to have my Golden Retriever along.

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-01-06
Summary: "A Must Have For The Avid Colorado Springs Hiker"

One in a series of books published by the Colorado Mountain Club, ([...]), this little gem is an easy to use guide for 20 of the best hikes the Colorado Springs area has to offer. Written by the members of the Colorado Mountain Club Pikes Peak Group, each trail is vividly described. From trailhead and back, the book gives easy to follow directions, trail highlights, level of difficulty, safety notes, tips and photographs. The hikes give you the option to choose from easy, gentle ones the whole family can enjoy to hikes that challenge the legs and senses of the more hearty among us. If you love the outdoors and live in Colorado Springs, this is a MUST HAVE BOOK. You will find it soon to be dog-eared, stained and torn - medals of honor for the great USED hiking books. For all you ultra-lites, the book is small enough to fit in your back pocket and weighs in at a mere 4.75 oz. Not another one like it in town. So put your BOOT ON, grab a copy. Discover or rediscover why you moved to Colorado Springs in the first place.

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Rating: 3 / 5
Date: 2009-07-19
Summary: "Disappointing but still worth a look"

The book provides some good hike suggestions and details on the hikes but novices or beginners will have a little trouble following some of the directions because of lack of clarity in some wording. Book is designed to be small enough to fit in backpack/pocket/etc and take up minimal room and weight. It certainly fits that objective. But the book would have greatly benefited from additional information as well as some indexing (there is no indexing whatsoever).

Minor additional issues are:

1. Expensive price of book for info given and;

2. Printing in China. For such a modest endeavor and limited printing, local US internet printing companies could have provided the same book for only a 10-12% increase in cost of book production and finally;

3. No Photo tips. A growing # of hikers take their photography as seriously as their hiking. Some input on what to expect where would have been very helpful with planing. Deciding on appropriate camera equipment/accessories (since weight almost always limits what camera/lens/etc. you can take with you) is often problematic the first time you hike any trail.

But the bottom line is that its worth a look if you don't have access to other info. And if you can get book for $5.00 or less, have some outdoor smarts and can use a compass, I think you'll find the book worth while.