Best Boulder Hikes

It's true. If you don't hike, climb, ride, ski, or at least run—the Boulder locals will drive you nuts with stories of the coolest route, the gnarliest climb, or the hardest all-day ride to Grand Lake and back.

Here is how you can take your revenge. Hike some of the trails in The Best Boulder Hikes and you can be right in there with them, telling tales of great routes.

For visitors and locals, casual walkers and hard-core mountaineers, Boulder has arguably the best "backyard" in the country. More than 60 named trails lie in the foothills within a half-hour of town, and scores of more high-altitude trails are within an hour's drive.

A team of writers, photographers, and map makers from the BOULDER GROUP OF THE COLORADO MOUNTAIN CLUB (CMC) has selected 20 of the finest trails of all levels of difficulty for this Pack Guide. CMC members built many of the trails and pioneered many of the climbing and mountaineering routes in the region in the early 1900s.