Hidden Valley Estes Park - Backcountry

This quiet corner of Estes Park Colorado was once home to a fully functioning ski area! What I know about its history comes mostly from family members who grew up skiing in Colorado. Apparently there used to be two main lifts and four or five good runs (very small compared to the current resorts in Colorado like Vail or Breckenridge). After years of operation the contract between the forest service and the resort was ended. This due in part to declines in profitability and lack of snow the resort was receiving. The lifts were taken out (these were the type of lifts that were ground based where you held on to a rod and got pulled up on your skis) and the downhill skiing stopped. Here is some more background and history for Hidden Valley.

Eventually the trees began growing back and the lodge was partially torn down. Today it is harder to tell that a ski area once existed there but the large white tracks from runs are still evident on the inner parts of the valley and telemark skiers and snowshoers do still visit during the winter months.

For me and my snowboarding crew “The Ruff Riders” (named after the rap group) Hidden Valley was the perfect spot to learn new tricks, build interesting jumps or “hits” as we called them, and just take a break and get away from it all. We could do whatever we wanted in those mountains and since the trees were partially cleared from the old days of when it was a true ski area, it was the perfect place to go!

I remember pestering my Mom and Dad (or one of my friends parents) to take us up nearly every weekend (sometimes twice!). Once we finally started turning 16 and getting cars we would ditch school, and all pile in to do some backcountry boarding when the snow was good. Driving up the narrow canyon road singing along to DMX with Jeff Niccum… It was a blast! We all had snow shoes, and I had a couple of extras for different friends to come along if they wanted, we would put on special board holding backpacks full of power bars, fruit, and water in camel back pouches and then make the painful hike at high altitude up to the top of Hidden Valley which would usually take 2+ hours! Once we got to a good spot above tree line where it thinned out a bit, we would start digging and building hits. The whole process took over two hours before we would even put our boards on. We really wanted to get a snow mobile or something but since it was a national park that just wasn’t allowed.


As seen in the video, we had hips, rails, and even a road gap! The rail wasn’t a feature that came with Hidden Valley, we had to stash it there and the idea came when we first saw it being used as a crowd control barrier at a concert in Fort Collins. A few of the Ruff Riders commandeered the rail one night after the concert and put it in the back of Mike N’s truck. It was then given to me and I took it up to a spot just off of Trail Ridge Road with a good friend named Zach. We pulled over on Rainbow Curve and quickly carried it off into the trees where it remained all summer until we uncovered it during the winter when it began to snow again. The rail is pretty weak by today’s standards but back then in 2000, it was pretty awesome.

The road gap came about when we decided to hike on Trail Ridge Road road to get above tree line in Hidden Valley instead of walking up with our snowshoes. It just so happened that there was a plow on the road that day and he saw us and we convinced him to give us a ride to the Rainbow Curve section of road. Just as we came around the corner the first thing I thought was… road gap… and I said it out loud without even thinking. I had never before seen the road plowed like this during the winter and suddenly, what used to be a patch of flat snow was the potential for the coolest trick any of us had ever done – gapping the road on our snowboard. The plow let us off and we started tossing the idea around. Eventually we started building and once it was done we were all so afraid of the possibility of actually doing it that nobody wanted to try. Ultimately I stepped up and was the first one to hit the gap. I remember sailing over the road and looking down, thinking “oh my god I’m going to make it” even though I was going to land on my face on the other side. I sailed over the road four or five times that day and soon after Dave Bosch and Nick Marker had done it too and we were all extatic. Unfortunately for us, the police and forest rangers had spotted us and we got in a bit of trouble. They made us tear down the jump, but we knew we would go up again, and next time we would bring our video camera! It turns out that without the footage, nobody back home would believe us about the gap. Even Brandon Bosch (Dave’s older brother) called us liars and then proceeded to go to the same spot (with his camera) and gap the road himself trying to beat us to the glory. Ironically Brandon almost died trying to make the gap, he shot over the road off balance and was flailing his arms “rolling up the windows style” and landed right on his head. You can see this footage near the end of the movie in the credits.


The second time we went up I brought our camera and I took it one step further by hucking a backflip over the road. It took me six tries to get the back flip over Rainbow Curve on video (one of our friends named Shane S. had gotten upset on our way up that day and threw the camera in the snow, so it was having trouble working consistently). Ultimately, we got the shot and it went into Hidden, which is the video you see posted here.

These days of snowboarding took place between 99’ and 2001 while we were 14 to 17 years old. We shopped the Hidden video around and were offered a sponsorship deal by Zumiez in the Fort Collins Foothills Fashion mall. It was one of the greatest accomplishments any of us had. The Ruff Ryder crew, Dave Bosch, Max Pettijohn, and me Court, was such an honor and just so cool it still brings us together. I love you guys and the time we spent is one of my fondest memories. Props to Jeff, Si, Chris, Brad, Peter Shockley, Max, Dave, and both Shanes.

Skateboarding in L-Town

Back in L-Town where I grew up (that's Loveland Colorado for anyone who doesn't know), skateboarding was one of the top sports for non team sport enthusiasts such as myself. I had played soccer and was a part of Club United but as I got older sports like rollerblading, skateboarding, and snowboarding really caught my interest. I like to push myself and really feel free.. fast, like I'm flying. To this day I enjoy free-running or "parkour" which is the french name for bouncing and flipping and sailing around urban structures. It's almost like freestyle gynmastics and it's a blast. Back at CU, I would run around the grass hills and brick walls practicing flips and cartwheels. At the height of my free running I could run up a wall and do a back flip! One time I landed on my face doing this and got a big grass stain across my cheek, but I was lucky to never suffer too much injury. I made friend with some other parkour afficianados and we would boost eachother and spot when trying new things. With the help of these great friends I learned how to do a ground based gainer, which is basically akin to running forward and jumping up into the air and then doing a backflip while still going forward, landing, and then speeding away. It was super sick to say the least.

So anyways, this post is really about skateboarding and my friends Silas Siegrist, Chris Garcin, and Brad Galloway. Back at Loveland High we used to skate all around together, mostly in the parking lot and occasionally off stairs and at the Amphitheatre or "Amp" as we called it. One of the craziest places we would go was TVHS (Thompson Valley High) where there was a gigantic stair gap (which Si makes in the video... after falling a few times. The police would sometimes catch us grinding parking heads or waxing curbs and we would get in trouble (this is the retirement community of Loveland after all, not the ski area!) but for the most part we could do what we wanted. So eventually Loveland passed a bill to create a skate park and finally we had somewhere real to go! It wasn't great, nothing compared to Boulder (which had a great wooden park called Scott Carpenter - since replaced with a cement park) or the two Fort Collins skate parks, but it was better than nothing and for most of these years we were too young to drive so L-Town was all we had. Just after I created my snowboarding movie called Hidden, Chris Brad and Si made a video of their own which featured Si's top notch skating ability (he was definitely the best skater among us).

Chris was getting into broadcasting at LHS and had access to Loveland High's recording equipment and editing software that was used in the morning show (which of course was on all on a Mac, these were the years just before the ipod released) and the effects he employed for this movie were way beyond what we had done on Hidden or what we could have done on a PC setup. Enjoy the movie while you're here. I miss these guys but we had such a blast skating around and being friends, I'm really thankful for the great times skating with Si, the fun parties that Chris would throw on the lake and all of the trampoline time we got in.

Surfing in Hawaii

While I've never actually been to Hawaii, it's always been a dream for me. The warm waters, huge waves, beatiful coral! Hawaii is awesome and it hosts the Pipe Masters competition at Pipeline for the best surfers in the world. This is a legendary spot where the likes of Bruce and Andy Irons grew up. I love "The Bruce Show" by the way, if you get a chance, snag that DVD.

I've actually heard that people can climb the volcanoes in Hawaii and that sometimes you can even ski down! When I was younger I considered going to college in Hawaii because I think they have a special exchange program with Colorado (where I grew up) that allows people to get in state tuition! How awesome would that be? I'm not sure how good the schools are or what programs they offer, CU Boulder was great for business and engineering so all you Hawaiians might want to check out the program. Some of my best friends and residents were from Hawaii, including Allison - who loved to mountain bike and hike. She had a head injury from crashing her bike in Hawaii and the injury worsened at CU when she fell again on her bike. She was a great girl and a gifted artist. She painted a mural on her dorm wall (which isn't allowed) but was totally cool and really beautiful... until we had to paint over it.

Well, someday I will get to visit Hawaii and when I do I plan on renting a nice condo, maybe heding over to Maui and getting a Maui Vacation Rental so I can surf it up and enjoy the beautiful ocean, rainforest and waterfalls.

The North Pole

I almost forgot about one of my favorite Colorado Springs attractions: The North Pole! This is a one-of-a-kind amusement park nestled just up into the foothills. The theme is Santa's Workshop and all of the rides have been painted in the winter theme. There is even a pole that is filled with liquid nitrogen or something tha makes water condensation freeze to it and create a "North Pole" that people can touch and carve markes into.

One of the neatest (and most thrilling) attractions at the North Pole is a gigantic ferris wheele that is said to be "the tallest in the world" only because Denver and neighboring cities are already a "mile high" in terms of sea level. So the ferris wheele isn't really that large, it's just strategically placed ;)

There is a smaller train that goes all around the park for the youngsters and even a ski gondola to give an ariel view. Every time my family went I spent tons of time on the "flying ride" for lack of a better name. This ride was made up like one of those spinning swing rides except instead of a swing there are little carts that have a large fin fixed to the front and the back. The rear fin is fixed and functions much like the tail of an airplane; keeping things stable. The front fin is on a vertical hinge that allows the rider to control air flow around the cart as the ride spins. My Dad and I would ride this ride and really push the limits for how big of swoops and swings we could achieve. Great stuff! I hadn't really seen a ride like it until recently at Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver. There is a Batman ride that functions much in the same way but isn't nearly as thrilling because you can't get the cart swinging as out of control. Half the fun of the ride at the North Pole is that the cart would actually start jerking and bouncing when you swooped high enough. You would go really slow on a downswing and then yank way above the cliffside (where the ride was perched) and feel like the tiny cables connecting you could snap at any moment!

Flying W Ranch Colorado Springs

Well, it's another one of my fondest childhood memories. The Flying W Ranch... I think my parents learned about this place when my dad was working for Hewlett Packard in Colorado Springs. I think they used to have company off-sites there and the whole family would be invited for the supper that is served along with the band and the train rides and all of the other fun neat little things that are offered! These guys have teepees set up, old style western shops, a country style band, and honey butter that is so good.

This is really a neat place to take the family and I had a blast running up and down the steps to ride the train and explore the rocks there when I was a kid. The Flying W Ranch is located just up on the foothills of Colorado Springs and sort of rests between some of the same sort of rock formations that make up the Garden of the Gods.

Cave of the Winds Colorado Springs

I think every Colorado local has heard of Cave of the Winds. This cave was discovered by a couple of teenagers many years ago when howling sounds were heard. These days the cave has been nearly completely explored and the larger sections feature stairways with railing and flourescent colored lights to add a bit of artistic flair. Cave of the Winds also touts a high tech laser lights show that is projected onto a large flat canyon wall (made of rock). Perhaps the coolest part of the Cave of the Winds is the deep exploration tour. This special guided tour is set up for more adventurous souls who want to experience the thrill of old time true explorers. On many parts of the tour you actually have to squeeze yourself through long tight tunnels and there is no way to turn around! You get all decked out in gear and have a helmet and light... It's not for the faint of heart or clastrophobic! Expect to get dirty on this tour but definitely have a lifelong story to tell after you make it out.

Garden of the Gods

Even thought I was born in Colorado Springs, I didn't spend much time there until I was a bit older. My family would take short road trips from Loveland (which is about 1.5 hrs North) and we would hike and explore the area. I love mountain biking at Garden of the Gods! There are some sweet trails that take you all around the park... I used to have a great Scott brand bike but outgrew it and ended up with my Dad's carbon fiber Diamondback. These days I ride a Marin (which is funny because I lived in Marin California when I bought it used).

Okay, so besides mountain biking there is really a lot to do at Garden of the Gods. One of my favorite parts is watching rock climbers! The whole park is full of rock formations that jutt out of the ground and provide world class climbing routs. If you ever get the chance to go, head towards the main formations (the largest ones near the visitors center) and walk in between the rocks on the trail, you will see free climbers and skilled lead climbers making assisted asents all the way to the top. People also jog around these parts and there is a lot of horseback riding.