Visiting Colorado in May for Mountain Activities

If there is any off season in Colorado, it is probably mid-April to late May.

Rocky Mountain National Park will not be seeing the big crowds in May. In fact, the Park Service makes it only a goal to have Trail Ridge Road open for Memorial Day weekend. There will still be lots of snow near timberline and above.

The western parts of the state on the Colorado Plateau will be mostly snow free. This is also high desert, not your typical Colorado mountain scenery. But this time of year it is still cool.

May through early June is the prime snow climbing season, which is usually too short for some of us. Good routes are on the Maroon Bells, Mt Sneffels couloirs, Dead Dog on Torreys, Northeast couloir on James Pk., Angel of Mt Shavano, and the cross on Mt Holy Cross. Of these, Shavano is the easiest technically. All require ice axes and paying attention to the possibility of avalanches. Get an early start!

Hiking in May should be at low altitude unless you bring along snow shoes. Even down low you should be prepared for wet trails, we call it the mud season. Absolutely no tennis shoes as we don't need our trails widened any more. If you're not willing to walk in the wet trail, don't bother going this time of year. There are good places in the South Platte area with Lost Creek Wilderness area probably the best. Try the Goose Creek Trailhead. Denver residents usually are training this time of year by hiking in the foothills of Jefferson and Boulder counties. (See Foothills to Mount Evans: West-of-Denver Trail Guide)

Rock climbing is in full swing except for when an occasional late spring snowstorm comes along. Almost all of the climbing crags are down low with the higher crags being the realm of the serious alpine rock climbers. Good areas are anything around Boulder, the South Platte with Turkey Rocks providing good cracks, and Shelf Road or Rifle providing sport climbing. Lumpy Ridge in RMNP is too high for warm climbing at this time of year.

Of course there is still skiing. That's probably Colorado's best kept secret. The ski areas start closing in April only because the tourist stop coming. A-Basin is always open past Memorial Day (last year they finally closed in August!). And you'll still see a lot of backcountry action going on to.

Keith Jensen

P.S. If any of you reading this have other suggestions for our visitors, please let me know.