Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting hiking within couple hours of Pueblo, CO

Going to be in Pueblo for work and have from early Friday morning (done in Pueblo by 0730) through Saturday afternoon to hit the mountains for a little hiking. Need some help on where to go please. Plan is for me to drop my son and his friend off at a trailhead so they can hike the balance of the day and either link up with me and the truck that night or sometime by noon the next day. They are 21 and used to hiking at low altitude.

Ultimate scenario would be for them to hike Friday in some beautiful alpine scenery and end up that evening at an alpine lake we can all three camp at. I am game to hike in up to 3-4 miles from the truck to meet with them at a lake if lake is able to park truck at. Got a 3/4 ton 4x4. If they can link up with me to camp at the truck they can travel lighter and cover more miles.

Doesn't have to have a lake for them to fish in, but thought it would be fun to try flyfishing in CO.

Any ideas? We are totally unfamiliar with the area around Pueblo. We need to be able to leave Saturday afternoon to make it to Garden City, KS by 9 or 10 PM Saturday night. Appreciate any input as we have scoured the web and not found too good of information and calling the forest service person wasn't too helpful either.

What I would do is drive up to Colorado Springs, then go west, either by Manitou Springs and hike "The Incline" or go further northwest to Rampart Reservoir to fish and hike the lake. If you don't have time for a "serious" hike, Garden of the Gods is really cool. There was another spot that had "Red Rock" in the name, a little less developed parkish area that was pretty cool, too.

My daughter dragged me to each ... once. Years ago. I live in Oregon, not the right source for local directions.

Tom