Mount McConnel
We ventured up the Poudre Canyon this weekend to do a moderate hike of summiting Mount McConnel. We last did this hike in 2020, which had very different scenery than this time. In 2020, the area was still scarred from the 2012 High Park Fire. Now that a little more time has passed, a lot of the charred trees are more decomposed and it just looks like barren hillsides with not much on them at all. But the lack of trees provided great visibility of the surrounding mountains.
The park rangers in this area have done much work on this trail since we were here last. I remember having to go over several large fallen trees when we hiked this in 2020, but this time the trail was completely cleared.
This was a perfect hike. The weather was fabulous and we didn't see a single other hiker. I know this isn't the most popular of trails, but I expected to see at least a few other groups because of the weather. I'm not complaining, I love having this trail all to ourselves today.
4.55 mi
3 hrs
8,299 ft
1,618 ft
Wilderness
We've done a lot of hiking in the Cache La Poudre Wilderness area.
Empty Mountains
The mountains don't have very much on them from both the high Park Fire of 2012 and the Cameron Peak fire of 2020, both of which went through this area.
