This May we went to Denver for a quick birthday weekend trip for Alex and hiked to Royal Arch and Fire Tower and had a pretty phenomenal time!
The first hike that we did is called Devil’s Head and the hike leads to a tower that was used to spot wildfires, hence it’s name “Fire Tower” and the internet said the views were amazing. So we promptly got ourselves up on Saturday morning, got some PB&J ingredients and headed south to the great outdoors! Oh ya!!!!
We drove south to Monument Colorado, then took Mt. Herman Road up into the mountains which had a great spot to stop and take some pictures!
From there we turned right onto Rampart Range Road which is what the Devil’s Head hike is off of. Mt. Herman Road and Rampart Range road are both dirth roads so four wheel drive was very helpful! We also had to drive very carefully because there were mountain bikers, ATVers, and dirt bikes that we were sharing the road with. (Wish we had an ATV!)
The hike is uphill all the way so I took it pretty slow. “Sorry, no, can’t hike right now, I’m taking pictures!” It made the hike a lot more fun!
Once you’re at the top you get to climb stairs!
It was so worth it though! It was like being on top of the world and it was mountains as far as we could see on this beautiful day!
Also, how cool is that building!? There is a park ranger that still goes up everyday and he will let you ask him as many questions as you want!
My handsome man :)…very pensive “damn, I was going for thoughtful” (ten points if you can name that movie).
I’m in awe, how are the mountains so perfect?
Going down the stairs kind of freaked me out if I’m being honest. But made it down intact enough to pose for a picture. 🙂
How to heck did they build that thing all the way up there anyways?!
So ya there were amazing views but also CHIPMUNKS! HOLY HELL CHIPMUNKS!!!! HE WAS SO FLOOFY!
Such a great hike! Then we headed back to Denver to catch a concert at Red Rocks and saw some deer on the way!
Yellowstone totally ruined me for deer though because they were EVERYWHERE! And now I’m only mildly excited when I see them. Still such cuties though, love their fluffy white booties.
We stopped for dinner at Virgilio’s Pizzeria & Wine Bar. It was ok, wouldn’t make it a point to go again though.
Now Red Rocks. That place is beautiful, whoever had the idea to build a concert venue into a mountain was a genius. I would love to come back here during the day because you can also hike here and Morrison has a really cool main street with loads of cute restaurants.
The view from the venue is so impressive with the hills in the foreground and downtown wayyyyyy in the background. And then when the sun went down everything was so perfect and twinkly! Huge fan.
The next day we woke up and made it to Dunkin Donuts around 10 (they should sponsor us, good god we love Dunkers). Then we thought to ourselves “We are sore, let’s go hike an even steeper trail, GOOD IDEA!” Genius. So we headed to Boulder to do the Royal Arch hike.
The one redeeming quality of this hike is that since you are hiking up a boulder filled tiny path there isn’t a lot of room to pass people. So since this hike was so heavily trafficked we actually ending up waiting for people to walk past us which was always a welcome breather.
We got here around 10 am, parking took forever because this place was packed, then probably started hiking around 10:20.
First you follow signs for Chautauqua Trail, then Bluebelle-Baird, then finally you will start to see signs for Royal Arch trail, but don’t worry there are maps to help out the whole way!
That is one majestic flatiron!
Mentally preparing my body for another day of real world stairmastering. (Also yoga pants with pockets are the best thing since sliced bread.)
After god nows how long and how many boulder steps we made it! The best feeling in the world!
You hike up to the arch then climb up under and through it for some truly amazing views! (And more chipmunks!)
Then we headed back down in search of some rest and indian food. Preferably in that order.
We finally got to the bottom probably around 2:15 and went to get some food at Sherpa’s Adventure, seemed fitting after our mountain climbing.
This place was delicious, would absolutely go back! I got the Tikka Masal and Al got the Jal Fregi, both were perfect.
When planning our trip we initially thought after Royal Arch we would want to do one of the Flatiron hikes, but…..ya no! Instead we took a relaxing drive through Roosevelt National Park on 119 and it was beautiful! There were people relaxing in the river along this road and it was so pictureque! We turned around in Nederland and took Magnolia road back which turned out to be a little sketchy with a bunch of hairpin turns but it was really pretty!
Then we headed to airport and came back to our Houston home!
If we you looking for other hikes to do near Denver also try Mills Lake in Rocky mountain national park! Also, if YOU have a fave trail near Denver please share! We are always on the lookout for more Hikertunities!
Happy Trails! (Hopefully mostly downhill)
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