James Peak Wilderness (Colorado) Backpacking - September 2017

A long-planned family RV trip to Colorado took the place of my annual backpacking trip with my son, Christian, in 2017, but thanks to some banked airline dollars I was able to squeeze a quick 'bonus' backpacking trip in with Christian to Colorado in early September 2017. We decided to head up into the James Peak Wilderness southwest of Christian's current hometown of Boulder, Colorado. Our Labor Day weekend timing couldn't have been worse, and as expected the crowds were huge, but I found that the James Peak Wilderness is well-suited to huge crowds - the East Portal Trailhead has essentially unlimited parking, the potential destinations off of the main South Boulder Creek Trail are numerous, and the camping options near all those destinations are plentiful and nice. In addition to being able to handle throngs of hikers, the James Peak Wilderness is also a beautiful location. The constant sound of flowing water accompanies you all the way to any one of numerous tree-lined and pristine alpine lakes. It's hard to imagine you're only a short drive and a sub-10 mile hike from Denver and Boulder. Similar to my other recent backpacking videos, this one has 30+ minutes of video followed by a 6 minute slide show at the end. It is meant to be an 'immersive' experience that allows you to come along with me on the trip. If you aren't interested in 'riding along on my shoulder' for an hour of video, just skip to the end and watch the slideshow and you'll still get a good overview of our trip. Still Camera: Nikon D810 with Nikkor 20mm f1.8 lens Video Camera: Canon Vixia G40 with Rode Stereo Videomic Pro Video Editing Software: Sony Vegas Pro 13 HDR Software: SNS-HDR Pro v2 Music: "These Moments" by Nicolai Heidlas