Destination: Golden Gate Canyon State Park
Date: 11/24/2017
Time of Day: 11:00 am start
Distance/Elevation/Difficulty: 2.0 miles (one way)/+971/Most difficult
Time Elapsed: 120 minutes.
Comments: This is our first visit to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. We came in off of Gap Road, and it would have been better to come in at the visitors center for our inaugural visit. We found our way to Mountain Base road and stopped in Bootleg bottom (named for the bootleggers that used to operate out of the area). We decided to try the Coyote Trail since we conveniently parked at the trail head.
The trail starts out deceptively simple. A smooth trail along side some mountain meadows lined with Aspen. Soon the trail heads into the woods and the difficulty increases to moderate – it is rockier but nothing to strenuous. Then the difficulty increases again, with a scramble up some rocks where care must be taken. Unfortunately, weather started to blow in and we were not prepared for hiking in freezing rain/snow. Or going back down a wet rock scramble while packing Alex. We opted to turn back for safety reasons and did not make it to Frazer meadow.
Would we return? Definitely. We really enjoyed our abbreviated hike. We look forward to coming back with an earlier start.
Gallery
Wandervogel with the McElvains 