With a trip to Denver for business I couldn’t miss an opportunity to spend time in Colorado’s beautiful nature while I was there. I decided to take a look at the half-day tours available on Viator that departed from Denver’s city centre and signed up for this tour: https://www.viator.com/tours/Denver/7-Evergreen-Squaw-Pass-Echo-Lake-Year-Round/d4837-59646P5
I met up with my tour group in front of Union Station and discovered I had signed up for the best day of the week for the tour. A Monday! When the crowds would likely be away and the would be roads quiet. There was about 10 of us that climbed into the tour bus so the size of the group was perfect, and it was nice to speak to the others on the tour at each destination. Along the way my tour guide Alex gave plenty of information about the area, history, nature and what is special about each of the places we stopped at. We had about 40 minutes at each of the 3 destinations to get out, go for a walk and explore before meeting back at the bus which was a good amount of time for the half-day tour. I really felt like they try to pack in as much to see as possible, but also enough time to spend at each location.
red rocks
Red Rocks is a geological wonder – an open air natural amphitheater that can seat around 9,500 people for a concert. It has two 300 foot monoliths on either side of the amphitheater and history that dates back 250 million years ago. At the venue there is a visitors centre which has information available about the geology of the amphitheater, as well as the famous musicians who played there. There are lots of short hikes available, which I took advantage of during my visit. While I was there I was quick to notice how quickly I got out of breath with the enormous amount of stairs and the altitude of 6,450 ft. One is recommended to drink lots of water!
echo lake
The next stop was at Echo Lake. At a higher altitude of 7054 ft I was amazed that there was actually snow on the top of the surrounding mountains even in mid-summer. I went on the walking trail which was a short walk around the lake of 1.25 miles. Along the way there were ablutions and picnic facilities. Fishing is popular at the lake with trout available for fishing if you have a licence, seasonal boating and ice-skating are also popular activities.
stopping point: Juniper pass picnic area
We stopped over for a few minutes at Juniper Pass which had a picnic area in incredible surroundings. It was at an elevation of 11,000 ft and definitely felt quite chilly in comparison with the lower elevation arounds I just visited. The picnic area has benches available as well as ablutions.
stopping point: warrior mountain view
Another beautiful stopping point was to take a look at Warrior Mountain with the snow capped mountains in the distance.
evergreen
We stopped over at Evergreen which is a charming village surrounded by nature and has plenty of interesting shops and places to eat. We stopped in front of the Evergreen Crafters which had locally a range of locally made goods. I wished there was enough time to have seen the dam and the lake, but will add it to my bucket list for the next time.
Shells Adventures 