Matthew EatonExplorer

Greetings! I am an outdoor lifestyle and adventure photographer based in Denver, Colorado. Loving life since 1983. I hope you find some of my adventures below helpful and inspiring!

Great spot- I was fortunate to explore this canyon on a day that the rain just would not stop and it was still spectacular!

Explorer

01/13/16

This is a beautiful spot and a lovely hike that (good/bad/otherwise) sees thousands of hikers in the summer. Get there early or you won't find parking and try to be patient with everyone and let the ranger deal with them when they get in the water in this very fragile environment.

I had an absolute blast on this hike/climb, but didn't have the super long approach as I have a jeep and camped along the creek. The climb is great with enough exposure if you stay along Castle's ridge to keep your heart rate up, but also easy to avoid. My party decided to descend into the basin from the low point in the saddle between Castle and Conundrum and we regretted it all the way back to the main trail. Lots of people do this, but it is just steep, nasty, loose scree! Back over Castle is definitely better!

Great way to start the climbing season with this loop. Being above 13,000ft for that entire loop is a good way to get acclimated to high altitudes for the summer!

I love this hike!! It is one of the first I did when I moved to Colorado and it remains one of my favorites. Pretty solid effort to achieve amazing views of the Indian Peaks Wilderness and front range cities! Bonus points for doing the traverse over to North Arapaho Peak.

This is honestly one of my favorite views in Colorado! I love leaving the city and then seeing this wide open vista welcoming me to the mountains. Great place to take in a sunset!

His is definitely a classic Boulder hike and one of my favorites. I climb it a couple times a summer to help get the legs ready for bigger summer hikes! It's offers a solid elevation gain, steep hiking, and killer views. Definitely hard to beat.

I definitely love this hike. Offers great views on the Indian Peaks and northern Front Range. Relatively little elevation gain for Colorado makes this an easy and enjoyable hike.

This remains one of my favorite 14ers of all I've done so far. It's a long day with the 14 miles RT, but the hike is quite enjoyable. Great forest, wildflowers, and of course the views are amazing with this being the second highest peak in the state!

This is such a fun route! If you are thinking about advancing your hiking into class 3 scrambles, this is a great intro. So much fun. It took me about 2 hours to summit Bierstadt, an hour to cross the Sawtooth with another 30 minutes to Evans, then 4 hours down but that was with a sprained ankle. :(

I actually climbed Quandary in winter to photograph a wedding on the summit. Had a blast- agree with bringing the snowshoes just in case, even though we didn't need them. It took us about 4 hours to get to the summit, and we got there with light snow flurries on the summit with spectacular winter views. Awesome day!

This makes such a great day hike as well!

This is such a great starter 14er. Straight forward trail, enjoyable hiking all the way to the top. Views from the top of any 14er in Colorado are fantastic.

Couldn't agree more that this is a killer butt kick of a workout/hike. The climb up is intense and I like to always shoot for a new personal record. The hike down is nice and easy as well, very enjoyable. I like to do this several times at the beginning of the summer to get back in hiking/climbing shape for the bigger adventures in summer! It's also nice to stop at Rudy's BBQ on the way home before getting back in i25. ;)

I absolutely love Kenosha Pass and the Colorado Trail through there. It's easy to get to and there is plenty to explore. As your photos show, it's also a top-knotch place to see the Aspen in the fall, and I've been snowshoeing there as well! Kenosha rocks, thanks for posting this to share with other outsiders!