This is a nice hike that is easy to get to off the highway instead of a long drive out on a rough road. Pay attention to the mileposts to find the turn off. Just one or two rough spots to get through as a low-clearance vehicle, but it was not bad. This is much less trafficked than Excelsior Pass trailhead.
The hike up to Welcome Pass is very steep, quite the elevation hike. You'll feel your calves burning. But it gets you up to the ridge quicker than Excelsior Pass trail. The bugs were quite annoying as you get higher on the hike. If you take a break at all, the black flies swarm like crazy and bite. Bring really good bug protection with you! In another week or two it might die down. Bugs are out later than usual because of the late snow. There is no snow up to Welcome Pass, and no water, so bring a good amount of water, especially if you're there on a hot day climbing!
We had two dogs with us and were really looking for some snow to help them cool off. So at the pass we turned right and hiked towards Yellow Aster Butte with them until finding some snow patches on the eastern side. It also got us away from the flies because there was some wind over the ridge and we were away from the trees.
Beautiful views of the mountains and we passed almost nobody else on trail which was surprising on a weekend. If we had turned west at the pass instead of east, we likely would have seen more people on the High Divide Trail.
Lots of beautiful wildflowers carpeting everything on top and huckleberries & blueberries are starting to come out! We ended up doing around 7 miles total with 3750 ft elevation. Easy to do as a morning or afternoon hike.
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