As a part of my get-out-and-explore initiative, this small trek outside of the city fits in perfectly. With a deadline at work behind me I took a personal day on Friday and on a friend’s recommendation decided to check out Maxwell Falls. It had been sometime since I’d seen a waterfall, not frozen anyway, so I was really excited to go do it. The best thing about these short hikes is that you don’t need a lot of prep; I pretty much threw the dog in the car and went. The trail is in the shade most of the time so it’s a good hike on a hot day. I believe our round trip hike was 2 miles, but I would have to account for getting lost time, too.
The trip took us about 45 minutes from Denver. I use Google maps for GPS and the pin for the Lower Falls trailhead is accurate; pay attention as their is no sign visible from the road.
This isn’t the subject of this post, but can we talk about three day weekends for a second? I got all of my work for the week done in four days. As I write this, I am on my second weekend day, and I still have tomorrow to prep for the week. I feel fantastic. It seems to me, if you have less time to do something, you are going to be more efficient at every task.
A rocky overlook about halfway up from the head of the lower trail.
Did you know we’ve had the 40-hour week, five eight-hour days as a standard since 1926. Henry Ford arrived at this format based on that period’s industrial needs and technology. It seems like everything in the world has changed except this tradition. Also, when’s the last time the Ford Motor Company did any favors for the labor force?
Sometimes the sun peaks out from behind the trees just right.
At Tree Hugger, their mantra is “Just remember, you only have 2,000 weekends, and then you die.” I think that needs to be on a motivational poster of a cat hanging from the tree.
Pepper navigated most of the journey.
Anyway, back to this trail. A word to the wise, it’s easy to miss the falls if you don’t know what you are expecting. On this trip we walked right past; there were not a lot of people on the trail that day, and my gut was telling me we had more elevation to climb. Thankfully we turned around after walking for a while and I was able to ask a hiker what the deal was. Basically if you are coming from the lower trailhead, listen for the splashing water and stay low near the creek. There may be some flora to sneak under but you will not miss the falls. The hiker told me her preference was to start at the upper trailhead and work down; it’s actually a lot faster if you are short on time.
Pepper splashing around at the base of the falls. At the splashiest point the water only falls from about eight feet up, but if you step away from it a bit it is quite a picturesque setting.
Not bad for a morning’s work!
Before you go, I highly recommend visiting Day Hikes Near Denver (http://dayhikesneardenver.com/maxwell-falls-evergreen-colorado/) for more details on the hike and helpful comments from people who’ve done this one.