I Like To Hike

Happy Monday! I know that a few of you probably rolled your eyes at the title of this post and are thinking “Yes, Lauren, we get it. You like to hike.” I apologize in advance if it’s little redudant, but I’m still thoroughly enjoying my love affair with the mountains. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed a nice, long holiday weekend (especially if you were lucky enough to have last Thursday and Friday off!). I’ve been running all over the place for the last four days and have spent a grand total of about five minutes at home, so I”m going to make this short and sweet today.

With this being the first July 4th that Greg and I have spent in Colorado, we really didn’t have an idea of what we wanted to do and see. We did know that the day would include some type of hiking and seeing fireworks at night. We braved the crowds and headed over to Chautauqua Park to hike between Flat Irons 1 & 2. It was HOT out (as you may be able to see by my lovely patch of sweat).

flatiron

There were a ton of other people hiking that morning, and two of my favorites joined us!

group

(Paige and Shane)

There’s such a beautiful view at the summit of this hike- if you look close, you can see some snow-capped peaks!

peaks

We grabbed lunch at Fate Brewery (which is quickly becoming one of my favorite post-hike spots in Boulder) after the hike. By the time we were done eating, we were all exhausted. Greg and I rounded out the night by seeing fireworks, which were luckily just a 1/2 mile walk from our house.

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On Friday, my friend Terri came to town! She has been driving across the country for the last few weeks, stopping for a few days in several different cities along the way. I was so happy that her trip included a stay in Denver- I love seeing my friends from Maryland out here in Colorado! Terri is a lover of anything athletic and outdoors, so I knew that she would be up for some hiking.

hiking girls

I had planned on taking her to El Dorado Canyon, but decided to go to Mt. Sanitas instead. Either hike would’ve been fine, but the views from Mt. Sanitas may be just a bit more breathtaking.

My hiking bestie also joined us (and those two tall chicks made me feel very short!)

summit

Paige also talked me into sitting on this rock for a picture.

ledge

I can be a little bit of a wuss when it comes to getting close to the edge of things…

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Saturday’s main activity also kept with the theme of the title of this post. I got to have another great hike with Terri! I think that everyone that visits this area should visit Chautauqua Park, because the Flat Irons are such an iconic part of Boulder. Plus, there’s so many great trails there for all different skill levels and each one is so gorgeous! Since I knew she’d be up for it, I chose one of the more butt-kicking trails: Royal Arch.

arch

The hike to the Royal Arch has over 1,000′ elevation gain in a short amount of time- and lots of very steep sections. It’s a fantastic glute workout for sure! The views from the top are also very rewarding and include a clear view of the Denver skyline.

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After three days of hikes that worked my quads and glutes overtime, I decided to take it a little easy on Sunday. My LiveFit workout called for Leg Day, but I made the executive decision to stay in bed for an extra hour instead. It was definitely a good choice! Greg and I enjoyed a lazy morning and then drove out west to do an easy hike in Silverthorne at the Lilypad trail. We hadn’t ever been there before, and it’s always great to find new trails (no matter how easy or strenuous they may be!).

The hike was short, but so pretty!

mountains

bridge

The trail led us to two different lakes, one with lilypads (hence the name of the trail) and another right behind it.

lilypads

lake

Dillon is about an hour and a half from our house, which may seem like a long way to drive for a 50-minute hike. We had a very good reason to drive out that far- to meet up with Heidi and Natalie (and their husbands) for a late lunch!

brewery

Luckily, I can hang out with Heidi often because she lives right outside of Denver (she was in the area to camp out and hike a 14er the next day). This was the very first time that I met Natalie, who is leaving for a 10-day 100+ mile backpacking trip along the Colorado Trail with her husband tomorrow! We’d been reading each other’s blogs for a while now, and I love her passion for Colorado (and she needs to move here!).

After a great lunch, Greg and I battled the holiday traffic and eventually made it back home. It was such a great, fun (and exhausting!) long weekend and once again, I realize how lucky I am to live here.

What are some fun things that you did over the weekend?