This past week has been hard for most Coloradoans, and honestly, most people across the US and world with what is happening with the Coronavirus, aka COVID-19. We’ve all been asked to “social distance” ourselves from others. Liz is a full blown extrovert, so being told to stay away from others is her absolute nightmare.
We have been trying to combat the cooped up feeling (see our blog post here about our favorite ways to not feel cooped-up) by getting outdoors as much as possible.
Yes, we are extremely fortunate that we live where we do but we challenge you to think about how you can get outdoors even if you live in a major city. Fresh air and sunshine? Sign us up.
This weekend we drove about an hour from where we live to check out Burning Bear Trail. We had never hiked or snowshoed this trail before, so we were really excited to see what it offered. Spoiler alert: it’s now our favorite snowshoe trail we’ve done. Yep. Favorite. Boom.
I mean, who wouldn’t immediately fall in love with a trail when this is how it starts? Yes, it’s as wonderfully peaceful as it looks in the photo. The sound of water flowing under the bridge and not much else? Happy sigh.
Alltrails.com rates this trail as “easy”. Our rule of thumb is to add one level of difficulty to Alltrails’ ratings when going snowshoeing. You hike differently. Your stance is wider, your steps are different, and your legs burn from the effort of pulling yourself out of knee deep snow if you happen to find a soft spot.
This trail is a 7.4 mile, out and back trail. There is a gradual incline on the way out, which means you get a really nice and easy hike coming back. The views were top notch. The parking situation was really easy, with a designated parking lot just around the corner from the trail head. All in, we loved this trail.
The best part for us? We are in the middle of a nation-wide ask to social distance and we ran into maybe a handful of people the entire time we were out. That’s about 20-30 people less than we were expecting. This is either one of the best kept trail secrets, or no one was wanting to drive an hour-ish from Denver to get there. Either way, we’ll take it.
If you want a really relaxing, beautiful hike/snowshoe, we highly recommend this trail. It’s great for beginners and experienced snowshoes alike.
As always, be sure to do your trail research. Just because we loved this hike and had the most perfect day out there does not mean it’s perfect for you. Know your surroundings and what you are going to get into before you go.
Happy future trails!
- Team Be Outdoors
