Mount Hoffman out and back Trail hike on 9-Oct-2026

With a forecast of showers coming in later in the afternoon, the relatively short Mt Hoffman hike looked like a good option to beat their arrival. Part way up there is a short side trip to a rocky outlier which offers an opportunity to do a bit of scrambling which most Ramblers cannot resist:

Rock outlier off the Hoffman trail

Doing the easy scramble up the rock outlier

It was also here that we were exposed to the strong northwest winds that threatened to blow you over and we had a view to the west of the blustery conditions over the Front Ranges. But returning to the trail it was quite sheltered in the trees with little wind effect. This ended exiting the trees on the bare approach to the summit. Although it remained sunny with few clouds directly overhead, we could feel drizzly droplets of moisture being blown from the clouds to the west; this contributed to a rainbow visible in some of the photos below:

Barbara, John and Rosanne on the blustery summit of Hoffman

Hold onto your hat! Trip Coordinator Ron on the windy summit apparently getting zapped by the rainbow

Fortunately we only had to descend a little on the southeast side of the summit to find a very pleasant and warm site for our lunch break:

Sunny & calm lunch spot a bit below the summit on the lee slope

Then it was back to do a gusty traverse of the summit en route to the trees:

Crossing the windblown summit, rainbow still present

From there it was an uneventful descent to the parking lot. Thanks to the congenial group who joined me on this pre-Thanksgiving burnoff of a few calories.

Participants: Norman, Rosanne, Philip, Ron C/S/P, Barbara, Nancy, Sarah, Jeannette, John, John, Jo, Cheryl (photos)

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