This is the fourth in a series of posts called Summer Rocks! that chronicle our adventures in hiking this summer. Why Summer Rocks!? Because my kids were so lucky this summer to get outside and see so many beautiful things, and it seemed that everywhere we hiked, there were huge rocks for the kids to climb on and beautiful sites to see.
I posted about our family hikes up at Golden Gate Canyon State Park here and here. Go check them out!
I posted about our Summer Rocks! Part I hike to the Palmer Lake Reservoirs here.
I posted about our Summer Rocks! Part II hike to Four Mile Canyon here.
I posted about our Summer Rocks! Part III hike to Glen Eyrie here.
Here we go! Summer Rocks! Part IV - Hahn’s Peak.
We took our second camping trip of the season a couple weeks before the kids started school. One last chance to decompress and hang out as a family before school starts and we have bed times to enforce 
We ventured up to Steamboat Lake State Park, about 30 miles outside of Steamboat Springs and spittin’ distance from Wyoming. We’ve been up there before and really enjoyed the camping. This time? Again, we were not disappointed! This was the view from our camp site. 10,839 foot high Hahn’s Peak. You can see the old fire lookout tower on the top.
Anyone who knows the Boedies knows that sitting and staring at this for an afternoon and evening only called out a challenge . . . that we would summit Hahn’s Peak. Reading all the literature online about it, it seemed like a pretty doable hike - rated intermediate/difficult, the trail was only 2 miles one way - we could totally do that. So the next morning, we got up, packed some lunches and headed out to the trail. We had to drive up an old forest service road for 3 miles to the parking lot, the hike up the rocky road for about another 1/2 mile before getting to the trail head. A couple times, we weren’t sure if we were in the right spot, but we saw the trailhead sign and were good to go.
There weren’t many rocks to climb on with this trail, so Dude was a little disappointed. He and Princess both were pretty “not into it” most of the hike up, but they got to enjoy some great views and the beautiful wild flowers that were all over in the forest.
They were both much more into the hike when we got near treeline and could see things. That body of water behind us? Steamboat Lake . . . the campground where we were staying. Isn’t it beautiful?!
When we came around another corner, we could see the car, where we had started hiking. Want to know how far up we’d hiked, and we were only about 3/4 of the way there? The picture below has a large clearing near the middle. To the right of that is a little clearing that’s almost all white. To the right and up from that is another clearing . . . THAT’S where our car is parked! Have I ever mentioned how grateful I am that my kids love the outdoors and are willing to do almost anything with us?
Dude and Princess were doing great and weren’t having a bad time - but they were getting a little antsy to get “there.” I had the talk with them about how sometimes you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone if you want to see and do some amazing things. They weren’t buying it. But when we turned the corner and they could see the peak again, they were excited to keep going! See that road up the peak on the right? That is not where we get to hike. We had to go up this other mountain a ways first.
They were both way excited when we saw some old cabin ruins. They wandered around in there a little bit until we decided it was too unsafe for them.
One more corner after the cabin ruins and we hit treeline . . . woo hoo!!! Treeline is quite low on this peak. Regular treeline is usually around 11,500 feet, but since this peak is only 10,839 feet high, it was quite lower. Here’s the last sign to ensure that we were on the right trail . . . looks a little too much like a grave marker to me 
The kicker was that it didn’t indicate which way to go - if you can see, the trail splits. We went to the right, hoping it was the shorter route . . . it was
Dude was so happy when we got past treeline. We were all surprised because the hike above treeline was all really loose rocks. It was like a dump truck had dumped tons of loads of rocks to make this hill. It was really weird! And see how you can see the trail in the photo below? You can’t see that when you’re up there. It all looks like a bunch of rocks and you just kind of pick the shortest route to the top. Apparently we were at least close to the actual trail. Dude, of course, was in heaven because he had found all the rocks he could ever dream of to hike on
As I mentioned in previous posts, afternoon thunderstorms are a danger on the Front Range . . . they roll in almost every afternoon like clockwork, which is why you have to start hikes early. They of course put this sign on the fire watch tower to scare the crap out of you when you get there.
The view of the lake and campground (to the right of the lake) from the summit of Hahn’s Peak. We made it! The kids were so proud of themselves, as they should have been! Sure they’ve hiked 4 miles before, but never at that altitude. We were sooooo proud of them.
There wasn’t a lot of traffic on the hike . . . we saw maybe 3 other groups of people, which was awesome. We were kind of happy, though, when another lady and her dog came up to the summit as well so she could take our picture on the top of the fire lookout
As always, the views were AMAZING! I’m so happy we live in such a beautiful state and can experience so many fun things without going too far or spending much money.
After a lunch of PB&J on the summit, we decided to head back down. Yes, we had to hike right off the end of that hill . . . no it was not really steep on the other side. But again, see the trail in the photo? You can’t see that when you’re hiking. You just have to wing it. And hiking down those rocks was MUCH more difficult than hiking up! They are very loose and we all slipped and fell a few times. But, we made it down pretty much unscathed
After our wonderful hike up Hahn’s Peak, we headed back to the campground to put on our suits and head to the lake for some swimming and kayaking. It was amazing, just an hour later, to be sitting on the beach staring up at that peak that we had just hiked.
Check back tomorrow for Summer Rocks! Part V to see where we went next.