Snowshoeing at Devil’s Thumb Ranch | A Winter in the Mountains

On this first day of spring, when we’re already experiencing temperatures in Denver in the 70’s and 80’s, I thought I’d take a look back at a January trip to Tabernash where Heather and I spent a weekend Snowshoeing at Devil’s Thumb Ranch.

Heather and I love hiking in the Colorado mountains, but prefer to do much of our outdoor time in the summer.  Its kind of ironic, because Colorado is known for its winter sport enthusiasts, but we just haven’t made the time to invest in gear and passes to take on snowboarding or skiing.  To be fair, Heather has never done either, so there would be a bit of learning involved if we hit the slopes and it just isn’t something we’ve tacked yet.

However, we did get a couple of pairs of snowshoes for Christmas two years ago and we’ve managed to break them out several times for winter mountain excursions.

This past January, when we were up in Tabernash for Jamie and Chesley’s elopement, we had the opportunity to go snowshoeing at Devil’s Thumb Ranch AND spend the night in their fantastic lodge.

It was a gorgeous sunny day on the trails, so even though it was only in the 20’s we managed to stay warm just by  moving.  The mountains got hammered with snow this December and January, so much so, that if you stepped off the packed trails, you were in danger of being knee deep in snow, even on snow shoes.  This was baby E’s first snowshoeing trip and we managed to keep him warm and snuggled and sleeping for most of the 3.5 mile trek.