Home Album Guide to Mount Sanitas Topo No Story
| Distance: | One way: 0.9 mi. from Hawthorn |
| Difficulty: | Strenuous |
| Hike Time: | One and half hours - round trip |
| Elevation: | 5690 ft. to 6863 ft. |
| Season: | Spring, summer and Fall |
| USGS Maps: | Boulder |
| Directions: From: Boulder |
From the center of town (Arapahoe and Broadway), take Broadway 1.3 mi. North to Hawthorn, Turn West and drive approx 1 mi to the trail head. |
Mountain bikes and horses are not allowed on the trails; leased pets are allowed.
The trails to the top of Mount Sanitas are two of the many trails maintained in the foothills West of Boulder by the department of Boulder County Parks and Open Space. The Hawthorn trail is marked in Red on my map and is the route I trekked; it is well marked, well maintained and strenuous. Of the two routes to the Top of Mount Sanitas, the alternate trail, marked in Blue on the map is supposedly the easiest. I did not trek the alternate route, which is shown on the TOPO map as connecting to Sunshine Canyon Dr West of the Community Hospital. On the map, roads to the trail heads are marked in Green, which includes an old fire road traversing from the hospital, through Sanitas Valley, to the Hawthorne Trail.
The Mount Sanitas trails are busy trails, popular with the fitness crowd. I was somewhat surprised by the lack of cordial greetings from the locals. We passed several people but very few of them even acknowledged a greeting. Several of the hikers were accompanied by their canine companions which are supposed to be restrained on a lease.
The summit will offer broad vistas of the Boulder Valley to the East and snowcapped peaks to the West. Along the way you will pass sandstone slabs and several sandstone quarries which produced much of the building materials used in the construction of buildings at the Univ. of Colo.
Trekker