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| Hiking | 12.30 Miles |
2,300 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.30 Miles | 5 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.24 mph |
| 2,300 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | This is a really nice hike. I kind of wish I had done it earlier, but at the same time this is a really good time of year to do it with the fall color starting and the cooler temps along the Highline Trail.
I did the loop counter clockwise, starting up the Military Sinkhole Trail towards the top of the Rim. It's pretty shady along most of this trail, with some nice views once in a while to the south as you ascend. At the top, I took the Rim Lakes Vista Trail westward until it ended at the one trailhead. The trail is paved throughout most of it for handicapped access. The views along here, however, are tremendous. It was very windy and a cool 55 degrees through much of my hike here. Just below the Rim there were a few nice patches of red from trees that were getting their fall color. This section had the most people I saw, mainly just walking out to the edge for a view from one of the trailheads up above.
Just before the paved trail ended, I took an old decommissioned looking service road and started to vaguely follow GPSJoe's track that I downloaded. I hiked off trail for the most part until I got to the dirt road that goes thru the campground and leads to the Drew Canyon Trail. In the off trail section I spotted a few aspens that had some nice color and got some nice pics. Just before descending on the Drew Trail, I had the obligatory Taco Bell lunch at a picnic table in an unoccupied camping spot. The shade seemed like a good idea until the wind really started to pick up and I cooled down. I was practically shivering once I got moving again.
Saw a few more hikers along the Highline on the way back and a couple more spots in a canyon that had some red and orange fall color. Got back to the trailhead with 5.5 hours of hiking time for over 12 miles, which for me is almost a record. I'm leaving off a couple tenths of a mile from the officially listed distance because I tended to move in more of a straight line and didn't meander over to the edge of the rim as much as the official track. |
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