A Good Choice for May
As a private tutor, I love my flexible schedule, especially when family comes to town. My brother and his fiancée came for a visit from Maine, and she had never been to Colorado. We decided to head to the mountains on my kids’ last day of school (May 23). Colorado had some really late snow this spring (a lot of kids in Colorado Springs even got snow days the last week of school). I was hoping Hanging Lake in Glenwood Springs could be hiked without snowshoes or microspikes and made reservations for May 24. Fortunately, there wasn’t any snow, even though it’s not too far from Vail, which was still open for skiing.
Permit System
You now have to purchase a permit online and take the shuttle, as you can no longer park at the trailhead. I made our reservations about a month ahead of time and wasn’t sure how all of it was going to work. I thought I’d write this blog post to explain how it went, in case it’s helpful for anyone else planning to go.
You can purchase your permits for $12/person here. Shuttles run every 45 minutes.
Timing of the Hike
Our permits were for 10:30 a.m. They recommend arriving at the Hanging Lake Visitor Center 45-minutes early. We did and used that time to get our daypacks ready, put on sunscreen, lock the car, check in at the front, fill our water bottles, use the bathrooms, etc. We were leisurely and had about 10 minutes to spare. We looked around the shop where they sold hoodies, posters, water bottles, snacks, etc. The woman at the desk explained that we had a spot reserved for us on the 2:00 p.m. return bus. They run every 45 minutes, so we could get on a different one but only if there was space available. She gave us lanyards that we needed to wear while hiking so the rangers knew we were “legit.”
The hike starts along this paved path by the river in beautiful Glenwood Canyon.
At 10:30, we boarded the white bus, waited while they did a head count, and drove to a parking lot about 20 minutes away. We got off, took some pictures of the river and canyon, and started walking at 11:00 a.m. You walk 0.4 mile on a paved path along the river. Then you’ll see a well-marked hiking trail off to your left, heading up a side canyon.
Difficulty of the Hike
The hike itself is only 1.2 miles one way to the top. Easy peasy, right? Haha! You gain 1,000 feet of elevation in that short 1.2 miles. My kids who are ten and twelve-years-old and our visitors from sea level did fine. If you are out of shape, you may need to take frequent breaks to catch your breath. It took us one hour to get to the top.
We had company on the trail, but it wasn’t ridiculously crowded. The permit system is limiting the number of visitors per day in order to lessen the impact people are having on the area, so hopefully, it’s never as crowded as it has been in recent years.
The hike is next to a loud creek and some small waterfalls the entire time. It’s a pretty shaded hike. You cross back and forth over the water on seven numbered bridges. You can see the bridges within the dashed border on this map I cropped from www.aspentrailfinder.com.
We arrived at the top at noon, ate our lunches on a boardwalk bench, and enjoyed the beautiful view. Anyone who wanted to have a seat at the top could since it wasn’t crowded.
Photo credit: Erin Robinson
Spouting Rock Spur Hike
After lunch, we did the five-minute spur hike above Hanging Lake to a waterfall called Spouting Rock. At first, I didn’t understand why it had that name since the water was coming down from over a ledge like a normal waterfall. However, if you walk to the side of the waterfall, you’ll see several holes in the cliff where water is, indeed, shooting out of the rock. You can get behind the waterfall if you don’t mind getting sprayed.
Photo credit: Sam Whiting
Perfect Timing!
We left Spouting Rock to start our descent at 1:00. We were down by 1:40. We used the bathrooms and boarded the bus at 2:00. It was perfect timing. I think the staff did a great job estimating how long the average person would need to do this hike. I’m sure we could have made it down in time for the 1:15 bus if we hadn’t been so leisurely taking pictures, eating, and doing the side hike, which all took about an hour while we were at the top.
We were back to our car by 2:20. We then drove to Aspen to see the Maroon Bells, eat pizza for dinner, and walk around the town. Then we went back to Glenwood Springs to enjoy an evening soak in the hot springs.
It was a long but very fun day, and my sister-in-law-to-be said she might like to move to Colorado someday. Please feel free to leave a comment about your experience with the Hanging Lake permit system and timing below.
