White Ranch Open Space is just about 9 miles outside Golden. We accessed the hiking trails from the west parking lots. There is a parking lot off of Hwy 93, too, but we wanted instant mountains.
What we didn’t expect was instant *wind*. The wind was really blowing and the temperatures had dropped quite a bit compared to home. We actually hesitated inside the warm car for a minute debating whether we wanted to hike after all. We’re such wimps.
We figured we could always turn around if we got too uncomfortable.
This trip, we remembered our Yak Trax…and it was a good thing. The north-facing sections of the trail were ice.
But the south-facing slopes were clear and warmer. Good thing we bring so many darn layers – they were constantly changed out as the temps fluctuated every quarter mile.
The hike took us past lots of large boulders and through some forests…with great views almost the entire way.
Want to hear something crazy? People bike this park! Ok, some of the trails seemed doable, but not this one we were on…but a biker came uphill as we made our way down. The picture below shows a ramp/boardwalk system that was built to help the bikers get past some of the harder sections…
As we were approaching the last two miles of the hike, the wind really turned bitter. My earlobes went numb, my thighs went icy, and we had to layer on top of layer just to keep walking. I was glad we weren’t on any steep-sloped section because the wind was tossing us about and I was even using my hiking poles!
But isn’t it deceiving? The blue skies and puffy white clouds made us think the day was going to be ‘warm and toasty’. Ha! It was in the 40’s at home and my thermometer was reading 32 degrees on the trail….with the wind chill I’m guessing it was in the teens!?
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