Double Rainbow-Pot-O-Gold Out-and-Back

Begin the hike from the Little Rainbow trailhead by heading uphill on the Little Rainbow connector trail to reach Double Rainbow Trail. Double Rainbow is an up-and-down contour trail that dips in and out of gullies cut into the side of Methodist Mountain. While this trail doesn't gain a substantial amount of elevation, the short climbs and descents are a great warmup for what's to come. Before you reach the very end of Double Rainbow Trail , take a left turn onto Pot-O-Gold. From here, the climbing begins in earnest! Pot-O-Gold trail is a fantastic hiking route that climbs all the way to the upper Rainbow Trail via a never-ending series of switchbacks. The hiking can be slightly steep at times, but generally, the grades are all quite moderate, as the trail was designed to be climbable on a mountain bike. Since Pot-o-Gold is bike-legal, you might encounter downhill mountain bike traffic, but the amount of downhill traffic on this trail is only a fraction of the traffic found on Gutz. As you climb and climb, the views will begin to open up, and from the upper reaches of the trail you'll enjoy beautiful vistas of the valley below, and the Sawatch Range beyond. While there's no particular viewpoint to reach as an end goal, this is still a beautiful and rewarding hike. The route as mapped here ends at the junction with the Rainbow Trail. For an even longer hike, you can continue on the Rainbow Trail in either direction. Heading right on the Rainbow Trail will bring you to an even steeper, more rugged climb that will eventually bring you to a high point--but that would be a dramatically longer adventure. Most hikers simply turn around at the junction and head back the way they came.