About Outdoor Boulder
Outdoor Boulder is a local guide to getting outside in and around Boulder, Colorado, published by Annette Thompson. Every trail fact here is checked against the agency that manages the land, and when an agency publishes no official figure, we say so instead of guessing.
Outdoor Boulder › About
Who's behind this
Outdoor Boulder is published and edited by Annette Thompson, who lives in Boulder. The photographs across the site are hers or licensed by her, which matters more than it might sound: a lot of Boulder trail content online is illustrated with stock photos of somewhere else entirely. When you see Sawhill Ponds on our Sawhill Ponds page, that's Sawhill Ponds.
This is a young site and we'd rather be straight with you about that than pretend to a decade of history. What we can promise is the sourcing standard below, which we hold to on every one of our guides.
How we check facts
Boulder's outdoors is governed by four different agencies with genuinely different rules, and most of the confusion visitors run into comes from mixing them up. Every fact on this site traces back to whichever one actually manages the land:
- City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks for Chautauqua, the Flatirons, Mount Sanitas, and most in-town trails.
- Boulder County Parks and Open Space for Heil Valley Ranch, Hall Ranch, Walden Ponds, Bald Mountain and others.
- Colorado Parks and Wildlife for Eldorado Canyon State Park and fishing rules.
- The US Forest Service and Recreation.gov for Brainard Lake, the Indian Peaks Wilderness, and the permit and timed-entry systems.
Each guide lists its sources at the bottom, linked to the specific agency page we read. Not a search result, not another blog.
What we do when there's no official number
This is the part that makes us different, and it's worth explaining. Open Space and Mountain Parks doesn't publish an official distance for several of its most popular trails. The easy move would be to copy a number off a hiking app and state it as fact. We don't. On those pages you'll read that no official mileage exists, along with the range that third-party sources report and why they disagree.
The same goes for conflicting figures. Where the agency's own data table and its written description disagree, as they do on the Community Ditch Trail, we print both and tell you they disagree. It's less tidy. It's also the truth.
Freshness, and its limits
Every page shows a "last checked" date at the bottom. Fees change, gates close, permit windows shift, and a rockslide can shut a trail overnight, as happened at Boulder Falls. That date tells you how current our information is.
It can't tell you what happened yesterday. For anything safety-critical, check with the managing agency before you drive out, and treat the sign at the trailhead as the final word over anything you read here.
No paid placements
Nothing here is sponsored, and no trail or business is recommended because someone paid for it. If that ever changes, it'll be labeled plainly on the page where it appears.
Found something wrong?
Please tell us. Conditions change faster than any website can keep up with, and a correction from someone who was just out there is genuinely useful. We'd rather be corrected than be confidently wrong.
Common questions
Who writes Outdoor Boulder?
Annette Thompson, who lives in Boulder, Colorado, publishes and edits Outdoor Boulder. The photographs across the site are hers or licensed by her, which is why the trails you see pictured are the actual trails described, not stock images of a different mountain range.
How do you check your facts?
Every trail fact traces to the agency that manages the land: City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, or the US Forest Service. Each guide lists its sources at the bottom, and the links go to the agency page we actually read, not to a search result.
What happens when an agency doesn't publish a number?
We say so. Open Space and Mountain Parks publishes no official mileage for several popular trails, so instead of copying a figure from a hiking app and presenting it as fact, our pages state that no official distance exists and describe the trail honestly. You'll see this on Chautauqua Trail, Gregory Canyon, Shadow Canyon and others.
Do you accept payment for coverage?
No. Nothing on this site is a paid placement, and no trail is recommended because someone paid for it. If that ever changes, it will be labeled clearly on the page it appears on.
How often is the site updated?
Every page carries a 'last checked' date at the bottom. Fees, closures, permit windows and seasonal gates change constantly in Boulder County, so that date tells you how fresh the information is rather than leaving you guessing.
What should I do if something here is wrong?
Tell us and we'll fix it. Conditions change faster than any website, and a closure or a fee change can happen the week after we check. For anything safety-critical, confirm with the managing agency before you go, and treat posted signs at the trailhead as the final word.
Start here
Last checked . We verify trail facts against the managing agency, and we say so when a figure isn't published.