Shrine Pass Trail - Best wildflowers viewing spot in Colorado

Update on 8/3/2014

I went on this trail again and now I really understand why this trail is called "best flower viewing area". The flowers are all over the hills and by the trail. You can see yellow, purple, orange, pink, red, white, blue different colors. It is just amazing and breath-taking! 

Aug 19th 2012 - Shrine Pass

This trial is a little bit far away from Denver Metro. Exit 190 on I70 W then turn left to Shrine Pass Road follow for other couple miles dirt road to get to the trail head.

There are facilities at the trail head and the parking lot is relatively small for the peak season. So we were surprise when seeing a few parking spot available at around 10am.

This hike is about 5 miles round trip and family friendly. A great meadow view appeared right after passing the bushes at the beginning of the trail. The bliss was so great. On the way hiking up hill, there were a group of sheep can be seen in the distant to form a beautiful nature photo.    

I was so excited before going to this hike. I have seen somebody’s pictures taken at this area with the blooming wildflowers. So I was looking for the breath-taken flower fields but didn't even  see anything impressive. The hope to see the flower fields was broken when we finally got to  the summit. No flowers at all - What a disappointment! We figured the reason why the flowers were all gone earlier than other years is the drought Colorado has been suffering this Summer. 

Well, a wildflower hike turned out to be a no-flower-at-all hike. However, the view on the summit is still stunning. I will have to come back here next year!