Date: 4/15/2018
Who: myself
Length: about 5 miles (2.5 out + 2.5 back)
Time: 4.5 hours
Weather: 40-50 degrees, sunny, calm
Blodgett Peak trail is accessible from the Peregrine neighborhood on the northwest side of Colorado Springs. The trails starts at Blodgett Peak Open Space parking lot.
Friends at work had warned me about difficulties route-finding on this summit. I had received warnings about many social trails, steepness, gravel, talus, and even some rock-climbing. It was indeed a challenge for me, but also really fun! I found a route that was relatively reasonable. A predominately dirt trail does exist to the top, and it is possible to avoid rock-climbing and talus-scrambling.
At the summit, I had the place to myself for about 45 minutes with beautiful views, warm sun, utter calmness, no wind, and quiet. It’s kind of rare that those factors all come together.
My tips for hiking Blodgett Peak:
– In the beginning section, do not hike all the way to the water tower. There’s a fence installed there now to discourage hiking up the social trails. Instead, take Hummingbird Trail, which is very nice and doesn’t add much if any distance.
– In the valley with the creek bed, stay left of the creek bed for as long as possible. There are several places where the trail and gravity seem to lead you to cross over to the right side. On the left side, the trail is mostly dirt and rock. The right side looked like mostly gravel to me. Stay left until you get to a spot with a ~20′ waterfall leaving no choice but to climb rock or cross over to the right. Then, follow the trail near the rock wall upward until you can get around the wall.
– At the top of the rock wall, turn left on the trail heading slightly downhill. It seems wrong to go downhill, but the trail starts ascending again very soon. And, it avoids the talus field.
– When you see the “V” tree (see video), take a left where marked by large tree branches on the ground. Again, this keeps the route on a mostly-dirt trail and avoids the talus field.
– Be prepared for a very steep hike. I found hiking poles very useful.
I saw someone else’s YouTube video which mentioned pink ribbons. But, I only spotted 3 pink ribbons on my route. If anyone has corrections or better advice for reaching Blodgett Peak, please comment below.
This hike was so steep, it reminded me of the Manitou Incline. Here are some stats for comparison: Manitou Incline climbs 2000 feet in 0.88 miles. Blodgett Peak Trail (the steep section starting at the creek valley) climbs 1800 feet in about 1 mile.
This hike followed the BLUE line:
View Colorado Chris Hikes in a larger map
Wow again Chris! That was a challenging and fun hike! Thanks for taking me along.
What’s up!? Not sure how I didn’t watch or comment on this “tax day” post! So much here…wish we had video of the “mountain goat man” that trotted past you …also, love the trail choices shown and best options decided upon…and wow, the summit payoff seemed pretty sweet justice for time and effort expended. Of course, you must keep wandering, we are all watching and waiting for the next posts…stay safe, have fun.
Chris, I come across an article back in 2005 I believe that I think was written or the research was done by Shannon Daughtery on the history of Blodgett Peak and I tried to locate that article again and I can’t seem to locate that same article but I know a lot about the history of the Blodgett family and he and he is a relative of mine that the peak was named after and I wanted to find out more information and perhaps get a copy of that exact article that I read online back and think it was 2005 maybe 2006, It listed three or four names of the people involved in that article and they all seem to be outdoorsman, Hikers etc. I’ve been doing a lot of my ancestry and I would like to obtain a copy of that article and as I mentioned before I it’s hard for me to locate that same article again but if you know anything of that article or have any knowledge of in a way to obtain that article I sure would appreciate it, I think you in advance and I’ll leave my name and if it’ll allow me to I will leave you my email address as well and I hope to hear from you in the near future.