Sorry for the double posting and duplicate seeming emails- something weird happened with the original post and almost all of it was deleted so I had to rewrite it!
The whole week before we did this hike I was pretty nervous about how hard it would be. From everything I had read, if it was windy the trail would be tough, if it was snowing or had snowed recently the trial would be tough, if it was cold it was going to be tough and the final common theme was that the views from the top were worth all those challenges. Oh and there was that other obvious challenge of climbing 2400FT of elevation in just 3 short miles. It was a constant assault on my butt and legs, I am still a little sore today 3 days later.
We got there pretty early, 7:15AM and were hiking by 7:30 which gave us the good fortune of getting a parking space in the very small 8 space lot. It gave us the chance to attack that first steep climb with little to no company, as we struggled up the trail, the CU marching band starting playing for some event and the “we are the Champions” vibe helped give us a little extra momentum in that tough beginning.
This is a pretty heavily used trail, and it seemed like runners were the most frequent users who passed us. Then again everyone passed us and some of them were so stealthy (or I was breathing so hard) I didn’t hear them until they were right behind us so I did squeal a few times out of shock.
The view on the east side is of Boulder and just got more beautiful as we climbed.
The trail is rocky at first and uses rocks for steps along with a wood based step. There is a little very easy scrambling involved and for us, patience because we had to keep stopping to peel off clothes, one time we will dress perfectly for our hike. When it levels out for a short period of time the trail gets wider, about the width of a small road. As we got higher and came around to the West side of the trial, the views of the Indian Peaks were breathtaking (or that was the incline kicking my butt) especially with the clouds crawling over them.
The very last stretch was an easy scramble that was more like rock steps up to the summit. It was worth every single step we took up!
This is one we will do again and again, as it seems like it will really help build our stamina and skills to attack more high elevation peaks next summer. As I read more and more about 14ners, I know we will need to work on our ability to adapt to a lot of different conditions and be prepared to take as long as we need to finish our goal. It seems this trail will help more than our old standby Deer Creek Canyon did and serve as an easy go to hike that could challenge us but is still close to home. I honestly cannot wait to do it again!
For the specs of the trail go to that post Green Mountain Via Gregory Canyon trail – Specs and below are our favorite pictures from the hike.
hiking to healthy 
nice pictures! ahhh this makes me want to just drive away to into a mountain.
Thank you! These views are why we ran away to here almost 7 years ago. Honestly I can’t get enough of them!
What a beautiful area! Hiking is my favorite thing to do but the east coast has nothing like this.
It really is beautiful! The more I get to see of Colorado, the more I love it here. The East Coast has other beautiful landscapes that we miss out on up here! Thanks for stopping by!
Seriously wonderful pictures. I enjoyed reading both the trail specs and the assessment. I’m pretty sure the elevation gain would have scared me off this hike – but after reading this, I’d be ready to try! My husband would probably run up it, which drives me crazy 🙂
Thank you! The pictures don’t do the views justice, one day I will get better at capturing all that beauty at the summit!! It was a great workout honestly and we cannot wait to get back there soon! We have another hike this weekend targeted with a 3400 ft elevation gain over 5.5 miles and a total hike of 11.5 miles, should be interesting!