Steamboat Rock — Wednesday, Jun. 19, 2019

Amazing! We camped at Steamboat Rock and were up early with the sun. About 8am we decided to go for “a walk” to just check out the trail. From the trailhead it begins a very slight gradual ascent that kept us motivated for our “walk”. After 5 minutes you get to a tree with a picnic table and water spigot. There we sat, drank, took in some views, and decided let’s go for it!!

It’s not a difficult trail, you have to go slow over loose rocks and gravel though. Be prepared to get dusty and use your balance!! It took less than an hour to fully ascend. Once at the top you can go left (south) or right (north). After you take in the views from there we went right/north. It was astonishing. Truly breathtaking.

The entire top of steamboat rock is a meadow, or more like tundra. We didn’t see any snakes but ample warning given at the campsite and trailhead. We saw tons of monarch butterflies, and a fair amount of harmless buzzy bugs. The top of the rock goes on and on AND ON. We turned back after about an hour. Every little point as we continued north provided an even more breathtaking view.

We didn’t make it all the way to the north tip or around, since we hadn’t had breakfast before our intended “walk” :)

Coming down is tricky, but just go slow, use a 3-point balance, and slide on your bum if you need! Also, a youth group of 10-12 year olds made it up shortly after us. This trail welcomes all hiker levels!!