Snodgrass Mountain: Crested Butte, Colorado

We took a morning to hike and bike the Snodgrass Trail in Crested Butte, Colorado on our summer vacation.  Taido has wanted us to do this trail for a while, but it’s a fairly strenuous single track trail for our young mountain bikers, so we’ve put it off in the past.

This year we decided we could do it!

I only have one picture of the bikers because they took off ahead of the hikers as soon as this picture was taken.

We hikers were a little slower, but we also had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, which was amazing!

The trail starts just past Mt Crested Butte and comes out on Washington Gulch Road.  It skirts around Snodgrass Mountain and is about three miles long, but it is definitely a strenuous three miles.  Lots of up and down in elevation.

The highlight of the trail is that it climbs in and out of the most beautiful aspen groves.  The thickness of those trees made it feel to me like a forest wonderland.

In between groves, the trail would dip down and then climb again.

Simon was so excited that a deer crossed through the grass and took the trail before us.

Simon enjoyed being the only child on the trail with us, because we let him set the pace and find all the markings.  Plus he got to carry his own little Camelbak filled with water, that also had a pocket full of treats.

 

The hike was really long for my mama, who was asleep by about 7:30pm later on this day, but I’m so grateful that she was able to come to Colorado and hike with us  after a year fighting some major health battles.  It was good to wander in the woods with her and Daddy again.

It was a long hike for Simon too!  He did so great, but he needed a little help after he almost got run over by a mountain biker.  Yikes!

This was one of my favorite days we spent in Crested Butte this year.  We went back to camp and had a late lunch of brats and cheese.  Then we kicked back in our camp chairs for the rest of the day. I love camp life!

Trail Notes:

If you go, you will want a hearty mountain biker like Taido in your group who can bike the road back up to the van to come and pick up the hikers.  Or you might want to plant a car at the bottom of the trailhead on Washington Gulch Road.  Also this trail is closed for parts of the summer for cattle grazing, so check with the visitor center in downtown Crested Butte if you want to be sure it’s open!