i understand that you have a pretty big window to hike the colorado trail. i’ve heard about some hikers starting as soon as mid-june, and as late as early september. and i understand that different windows of time present different obstacles (bugs, snowmelt, heat, thunderstorms, dried up creekbeds). what is your favorite time to hike this trail, and why?
thanks
tim
Tim, I started late may, I thought that was a great time to start for 2002 given the lack of severe snow. It allowed me to take full advantage of June which is a golden month in my experience to climb. The snow is retreating but still firm and the thunderstorm activity has not quite fired up too much. One drawback is that you reach the san juans in July and that’s when the monsoon season is starting. August and September is a good time to climb, so if you timed your arrival at the san juans for then, that would be good too.
Sweeper
Hi, we hiked mid july thru mig aug ( if I remember right ) and was a nice time to be out. We ran into only a couple of thru hikers… so very quiet walk for us. I loved that. That was a real pretty trail and I remember some SERIOUSLY good nachos in C Mnt… yummmm
yappy