Surpise Trail

Rating: 7 (1 being Low, 10 being High)

Where we found this hike: Best Hikes with Children - Colorado

The best part of this hike was a day with the family and the wildflowers. Of course the mountain lake was pretty with it's Lilly Pads in full bloom. Bring your bug repellent the mosquitoes were numerous especially by the lake.

At the trail head there were lots of people but we didn't see very many on the actual trail. I actually was expecting to see more hikers then we did considering it was the week of 4th of July.

This trail head can be used to start and/or end a backpacking trip, it meets up with the Gore Range trail.

Is this hike for kids?
My rating for hiking this for kids is 7 (1 being Low, 10 being High).
My daughter seemed to like the hike. She didn't get to hike as much as she would have liked. On the way down we had a summer storm moving in so we put her in the pack and hustled down the mountain.

There were a couple of places that the trail was steep and rocky and for your younger hikers you might need to hold their hand to make sure they don't skin a knee. The biggest challenge was there are 4 creek crossing you have to do that was tricky for us. With 2 adults (my wife and I) it was not that big of a deal, however if there was just 1 adult I believe one of you (the adult or the kid) would get wet. If it wasn't for these creek crossing this kid rating would be an 8 or a 9.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch by the lake and headed back down the mountain.