One of the adventures I have been looking forward to most since moving to Colorado is hiking on the numerous trails Colorado has to offer. Finally, 2 weekends ago, Boyfriend and I got off our butts and took off early in the morning for our first hike!
Horsethief Falls
Our first trip was to Divide, CO. Divide is a small town about half an hour west of Colorado Springs. It took about 2 hours to drive there (which was completely my bad, it did not look like a 2 hour drive when I was looking at the tiny map on my computer), but at least the scenery was nice to look at. From the time we left the house to the time we arrived, the temperature had dropped approximately 20 degrees. We had gone up in elevation during the drive, but neither of us had realized just how much higher we actually were. We finally found the trail head which is a sign indicating the beginning of the trail and it provided information including a trail map, animals/plants we might see along the way, precautions, and rules/regulations of the trail.
The worth-the-drive view directly across the street from the start of the trail.
Wow. There are no words for how ridiculously worn out I felt only a couple minutes into the trail! The thin air in higher altitudes is no joke! I was huffing and puffing and feeling ridiculous for being so tired so early in the hike. At the same time, though, it felt great! I was out there, in the fresh air, in nature, taking advantage of all Colorado has to offer me and it was so beautiful! I think I've discovered one of my new favorite hobbies!
A couple minutes into the hike, lovin' nature
So, the trail started off pretty tough. It was labeled as a "moderate" hike. Luckily for us out of shape, not used to the thin air, new to hiking "adventurists", it was only a steep incline for about half the hike and then leveled off making the remainder of the hike nice and relaxing stroll through the woods. There were a couple of spots throughout the trail that gave some nice open views.
The first opening in the woods with a random pond
The second opening in the woods - beautiful!
The majority of the trail was alongside a tiny stream and it ended at a cute little waterfall! When I say waterfall, I literally mean and small amount of water, dropping only a couple of yards. But it still worth it to see. We were told by a coulple we ran into that where we were standing for these pictures taken below was approximately 10,000 feet above sea-level. We (I) putzed around for a while taking pictures before turning around and heading back to the car.
The very small white-ish "drip" in the middle of this shop is the waterfall
Close up of the waterfall with the sun peaking through the trees
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