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ChinMusic
02-17-2008, 21:59
My wife and I are thinking about a week-long trip to Colorado this March. I have been granted permission (:jump) to have 3 days to backpack.

Any suggestions? I assume that many areas are out of the question due to the time of year (snow), but have no idea.

TIA

Almost There
02-17-2008, 22:09
Where in Colorado...unless you are in the south of the state, there is a good bet, you will have major snow. March is a great time of the year to go skiing, however.

MOWGLI
02-17-2008, 22:11
I donno. I would suggest you settle for some snowshoeing. You can take the ski train to Winter Park from Denver. That's a good time. PM Mags. He's the man when it comes to Colorado!

minnesotasmith
02-17-2008, 22:18
Where in Colorado...unless you are in the south of the state, there is a good bet, you will have major snow. March is a great time of the year to go skiing, however.

Go to the Monument State Park just outside Grand Junction, CO. Aside from being very convenient to a full town, and a beautiful place with a wide variety of hiking trails, its elevation is low enough snow will be far less of a problem than elsewhere in the state. (You can get inexpensive hiker-weight crampons near the registers at a store called Murdoch's in GJ.) There's also an REI, a Sportsman's Warehouse, an Army-Navy store, etc., if you need gear.

For restaurants, I suggest either the high-end ones on Horizon Drive near the airport, or the Dragon Wall on North Drive. Motels are cheaper away from the airport, too.
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Alternatively, there is a high-quality and inexpensive hiker hostel in Leadville, about 90 minutes SW of Denver, very close to Aspen. (I've been there, and have nothing bad to say about it.) They are hosting a hiker get-together at the end of February that sounds interesting. The operator of the hostel is very hooked-into the CDT, which is 15 minutes from the hostel, hosts many thruhikers, and knows piles about local trails. The town has a major supermarket, too. It's at 10,000' elevation, unlike GJ's 4200' and the Monument Park's 5500', though, so you'll definitely need snowshoes IMO.

minnesotasmith
02-17-2008, 22:20
Where in Colorado...unless you are in the south of the state, there is a good bet, you will have major snow. March is a great time of the year to go skiing, however.

Go to the Monument State Park just outside Grand Junction, CO. Aside from being very convenient to a full town, and a beautiful place with a wide variety of hiking trails, its elevation is low enough snow will be far less of a problem than elsewhere in the state. (You can get inexpensive hiker-weight crampons near the registers at a store called Murdoch's in GJ.) There's also an REI, a Sportsman's Warehouse, an Army-Navy store, etc., if you need gear.

For restaurants, I suggest either the high-end ones on Horizon Drive near the airport, the Golden Corral, or the Dragon Wall Chinese AYCE on North Drive. (The Chinese buffet on Horizon Drive is crummy.) Motels are cheaper away from the airport, too.
=============================
Alternatively, there is a high-quality and inexpensive hiker hostel in Leadville, about 90 minutes SW of Denver, very close to Aspen. (I've been there, and have nothing bad to say about it.) They are hosting a hiker get-together at the end of February that sounds interesting. The operator of the hostel is very hooked-into the CDT, which is 15 minutes from the hostel, hosts many thruhikers, and knows piles about local trails. The town has a major supermarket, too. It's at 10,000' elevation, unlike GJ's 4200' and the Monument Park's 5500', though, so you'll definitely need snowshoes IMO.

ChinMusic
02-17-2008, 22:36
Let me also throw this out. Colorado is not set in stone. I thought March might be a potential deal-breaker. We could pretty much go anywhere between the east coast and the Rockies.

Last year we went to the Smokies and northern GA. That would be my choice again but she wants to go somewhere different.

We are pretty much an blank slate.

MOWGLI
02-17-2008, 23:15
Arizona might be nice! http://www.aztrail.org/

snowhoe
02-17-2008, 23:20
I live in colorado and march is the snowiest month of the year great for snowshoeing. The train to winter park is croowwddeed on the weekends. You can go to fort collins and go to never summer pass they have yurts around there to snowshoe to. Its really fun.good luck.

The Solemates
02-17-2008, 23:25
we were in southern CO/ northern NM just a few weeks ago. It was nice...and no snow in the lower elevations. pick somewhere low in elevation in the southern part of the state if you want to avoid the snow.

ChinMusic
02-17-2008, 23:28
Arizona might be nice! http://www.aztrail.org/
I did some hiking in the Superstition Mountains several years ago and it was March then too. Great place. Actually got off trail once and couldn't figure out how to get down off this one mountain. Ended up cactus-whacking down a V and ended up a pincushion. Sucked at the time but a great memory......

Man, that's a long way to drive (1500+ miles). We were hoping to make it a driving trip. That would kill too much of the week.

mudhead
02-18-2008, 09:36
South Dakota.

Unless you live in way southern IL.

Mags
02-18-2008, 11:52
If you don't mind carrying water, the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness is a wonderful March destination, (esp more towards the middle-later part of the month)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Ridge_Canyons_Wilderness
http://www.plia.org/explore/site.php?id=6281
http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_wilderness_area/co_black.htm

A bit of the desert Southwest without the REALLY long drive to parts of Utah. Red rocks, arches, sandstone. Quite nice.



It is not far from Grand Junction (far Western part of the state)

Photos:
http://www.pmags.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_gallery2&Itemid=36&g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=10953

Obiwan
03-04-2008, 15:29
Another vote for Arizona

Beautiful time of year

ChinMusic
03-04-2008, 17:00
Another vote for Arizona

Beautiful time of year
OMG yes, I've been to AZ in March....simply beautiful. My son had two spring trips of college baseball out there. I wanna go back.....but not this year.

I've decided on Grayson Highlands 3/17-21 instead unless the weather looks crappy. If the forecast is the pits we might just head straight south, Destination Unknown (great Missing Persons song.....:cool:).