Hiking Herman Gulch Trail, Colorado

There was a 10 minute difference between these two shots.

I was lucky enough to visit Colorado twice in the fall of 2017 to visit my friend Frank! Denver is a great city and especially so for it's proximity to epic and beautiful hikes like the 14er Mt. Bierstadt that I hiked with friends back in 2012 and Chief Mountain in 2015. The Herman Gulch Trail begins right off I-70 about an hour's drive from Denver. The total hike length is 6.4 miles but due to the crazy afternoon mountain weather, we hiked for about 5.26 miles - although we only actually hiked about half the trail. The weather changed so drastically from sunny and warm to cold, cloudy and heavy rain, and then back to sunny and warm that we turned around to go back to the car, then went back to hiking, and then went back to the car a couple of times! Word to the wise - definitely don't start hikes in the afternoon in Colorado; the weather is quite volatile. Regardless, the scenery was beautiful and I wanted to share some photos with you all because these autumn mountain colors blew blow my mind.

*The hike starts at 10,299 feet (3139m) and we got up to 11,237 ft (3425m). Because my trip was so short, I didn't have enough time to acclimate to the altitude so breathing on this hike was a bit heavier. Reminded me of how brutal Mt. Bierstadt was!

Driving out to the mountains!

Look at that beautiful blue sky at the beginning of this hike!

Quaking aspens turning that gorgeous yellow.

Nice place to sit and chat.

Pretty colors <3

And the clouds, fog, and rain rolled in...

Take a photo of me before we turn back to the car.

Man, we have changed a lot in 11 years of friendship!

Pretty fog.

Then the sun came back so we turned back up the mountain!

GLORIOUS!

The ride back was cloudy for a minute but we got a sneak at a rainbow.
All in all it was wonderful!