Rattlesnake Gulch
November 4
Rattlesnake Gulch
Trailhead: Fowler Trail (Eldorado Canyon State Park)
Distance: 3.6 (easy)
Is there anything better than a hike in a new place with your best friend? Rachel suggested we go to Eldorado Canyon SP - neither of us had been there before, but Rachel is on a mission to visit all of Colorado's State Parks and we thought we should cross this one off our list!
We got there and parked in the first parking lot, got out of the car, started walking, and realized the map was showing technical climbing routes, got back in the car, and drove another mile up the road. Once we finally got the the real trail & not a technical climbing route, we were all set!
The trail is definitely an easy trail, but the uphills right at the beginning can seem a little daunting. Keep looking back east, though. The views will help you forget that you're not even halfway up yet! At the top, you can do a 0.8 mile loop that takes you around to a continental divide viewing area. We went left at the split, and it was more uphill from there.
Is there a better hiking snack than popcorn?
On our way back down, we spent probably 45 minutes watching the rock climbers. All the sudden, we noticed that someone had set up a slackline/highline across the canyon! You can barely see it in the picture below, but look for the thin green line and the dot of red right in the middle!