u/JainaNoel

WHAT A HIKE!

Backpacked out to Conundrum Hot Springs on July 4th to 5th this weekend. Absolutely gorgeous. The sheer amount and variety of wildflowers along the trail was staggering. No exaggeration, maybe hundreds of thousands of wildflowers in the 8.6 mile trek. As you get higher, the flowers tended to get a big stronger and healthier. Saw lots of deer and small critters but nothing else of note (although we saw some quite fresh moose/bear poop on the trail on the way down).

There was essentially 0 smoke on the first day. Really pleasant conditions. A bit more smoke on the way back but not awful.

This trail is truly quite cruisey. Alltrails clocks this at 17.1 miles and 2,762 feet of gain and that felt mostly accurate to me. My Garmin clocked it a tick longer, but with the usual GPS drift. A good chunk of the trail is essentially flat, and it's really only miles 4-5 and the final 1.5 miles that have any significant or challenging gain.

Was able to snag campsite #1 back in February and don't regret that choice at all, it seemed to not only be the closest to the hot springs, but was also the most secluded from what I can tell. There were 2-3 reasonable tent spots and campsite 1. The springs were maybe 100-200 feet away so you could hear people, but they were mostly drowned out by the nearby creek and trees were obscuring any view that hikers in the springs could have into your site.

The springs themselves are gorgeous! A bit... grosser than I was anticipating but I should have expected it to be a bit slimy seeing as it is nearly 9 miles out in the middle of nowhere. The springs were nice and warm and a great way to relax after the long trek. They could probably fit ~30 people comfortably.

Got to the trailhead at 6am on the dot on July 4th (which was a Saturday) and there was only 2 or 3 spots left. When we got back around 1pm the following the day, there was a handful of spots available (likely from campers returning).

Overall, took 4.5 hours up and 3.5 hours down with plenty of picture breaks in between. I probably wouldn't recommend this to day hikers because I wanted to spend so much time at the springs, I couldn't imagine having to turn back so soon.

(All pictures shot on a Fuji XE-5 with the 23mm 2.8 lens)

Found myself at my lowest point in October of 2023 and told myself I wouldn't let it defeat me. I wanted to get stronger, I wanted to get happier, I wanted to get hotter.

At this point, I've accomplished the first two and feel so much closer to #3 than I ever have in my life. Excited to go into my 30s more confident than I left it :)

What a gorgeous day and even more beautiful trail!

Got to 4th of July TH right at 7am (on a National Holiday) and snagged one of the last spots in the overflow road parking at the TH. Weather was perfect all day, a little cold in the morning and hot on the descent but a light breeze made it very tolerable.

The trail is in great condition. Tons of wildflowers (including groves of Columbines) on Arapahoe Pass Trail and all the way up to the base of South Arapahoe. The trail is a tad muddy and overgrown right past the turn-off for Arapahoe Glacier trail. Only lasts a tenth of a mile or so.

Arapahoe Glacier was the highlight of the day. The color of the water from the glacial runoff was stunning. The push up to the peak was a bit hard to follow at times with no clear and obvious trail, a bit of a choose your own adventure but never exceeded Class 2 unless you wanted to get in some Class 3 scrambling practice with little-no exposure. 14ers.com labels this part as "difficult class 2" but I didn't necessarily think it was that difficult.

Summit was spacious, and we had it all to ourselves. Probably saw 15-20 people total once we got past the Arapahoe Glacier trail turn-off. Saw a couple people heading over to the sub-peak right before the Arapahoe Traverse, but it didn't look like anyone was actively on the traverse, as it was still holding a fair amount of snow. No wildlife aside from a couple marmots and pikas.

Overall, my watch clocked in at 9.58 miles and 3,284 feet of gain, which felt mostly accurate. Just a tick over 6.5 hours car to car (including all the breaks we took and time spent at the summit).

I highly, highly recommend this trail to anyone who's looking for some gorgeous wildflowers, a fun Class 2 summit push, and a bit of a diversion from the normal trail at 4th of July TH.