Planning on hiking Blodgett Peak tonight

[smham33]

How much time should we give ourselves? I was thinking about 3 hours round trip. Looks to be a beautiful evening though - can't wait to get up there.

Any other tidbits would be appreciated. Thanks!

[kuglerd]

3 hours should be good if you're going from the open space parking area at the west end of Woodmen. If you are going up from the AFA, you'll need significantly more than that, probably 4-5 hours. Weather looks great. Enjoy!

[cftbq]

Just be advised that the city of Colo. Spgs. (which controls the Open Space parking lot) declares it "closed" at night and forbids overnight parking. Weather does indeed look great, and I wish you well, but don't be surprised if you return to find a very expensive ticket on your windshield. (Hell, for all I know, they might even tow your car!)

[mountainmicah83]

3 hours sounds reasonable for an average and 2.5 is going at a descent pace, 2 hours is really fast and 3.5 to 4 hours is slow but not unreasonable. Good luck on the vast amount of trails around there. My advice on best route is to stay in the ravine way longer than you think you should be, literally until there is no trail. Then, cut up on one of the trails up the hill and follow the ridge up to the backside of the summit. If you don't go this way, you have to cross the boulder field and then tons of loose loose loose sand and dirt. If you hit a waterfall or cliff in the ravine, you went too far and you need to turn right/uphill/south and head up from there until you hit the ridge and then turn right/east.

May want to take some small papers and a new pencil for the summit register!

Best of luck to you.

[smham33]

Thanks for the info everybody. I recently moved about a half mile from the Blodgett Peak Open Space lot, so that's where we'll leave from. We might just walk there if there's a possibility of a ticket.

Thanks for the route information. I hear the trail gets a little hard to find, so we'll follow your directions.

[dmccool]

hike toward the water tower and then just cut up above it. you'll see the trail. the actual hike to Blodgett isn't part of the open space trails. i think it's national forest.

[cftbq]

I hear the trail gets a little hard to find, so we'll follow your directions.

That's putting it mildly. Getting to the water tower is easy. Not far beyond that, however, the trail gets indistinct and/or braided in several places. You can easily take a wrong turn going either up or down. Be careful!