Mount Blue

This route starts and ends at the dead-end parking area on Mount Blue Road, a roughly 2.5-mile gravel spur off Center Hill Road within Mount Blue State Park in Weld (the road is gated and unplowed in winter). From the trailhead, the Mount Blue Trail climbs almost immediately into steep, rocky forest with few flat stretches to catch a breath. Around 0.8 miles in, the trail passes the crumbling remains of an old fire warden's cabin, a holdover from the mountain's lookout history. The path narrows and grows rockier on its final push, breaking into the open near a scenic overlook just below the summit. The top itself, at 1.4 miles, is capped by a tall communications tower, often mistaken from a distance for an active fire lookout, with limited public access to a lower observation platform and 360-degree views across the Longfellow Mountains, including the Tumbledown-Jackson Range to the west. The round trip covers about 2.8 miles with roughly 1,700 feet of elevation gain one-way — a short outing, but a sustained, steep one throughout. Retrace the same trail back to the Mount Blue Road trailhead.