Mount Sanitas - Hiking with Dogs, Trail Running

Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks

The Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks contains over 131 miles of hiking trails and 43 miles of mountain biking trails. In addition to hiking Mount Sanitas, we recommend hiking on the Chautauqua Park Flatiron Trails.

Mount Sanitas Trail Map and Parking

Mount Sanitas is located less than 10 minutes from downtown Boulder, Colorado. Primary activities include hiking, trail running, and hiking with dogs. Parking at the Mount Sanitas trailhead is free but limited in space. However, since the trailhead is only five minutes from downtown Boulder, many people walk or ride their bikes to the trailhead. Restrooms and water are not available at trailhead. Cell phone service was available in most of the park.

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Mount Sanitas Trail

The Mount Sanitas trail hiked as a loop via East Ridge and Sanitas Valley trails is a vertically challenging 3.3 mile hike. Reaching the Mount Sanitas summit requires climbing 2,200 feet, starting from 5,600 and rising to 6,800 feet. As you can see in the subsequent picture, the vertical characteristics of the trail can be likened to a natural stair stepper machine.

Mount Sanitas Summit

The Mount Sanitas summit provides a mid-level view of Boulder, CO. Considering the popularity of this trail, the summit has limited space for hikers looking to eat a peaceful, relaxing lunch.

East Ridge Trail

The East Ridge trail leads you to the Sanitas Valley trail and, thus, forms a loop. It is curvier than the Mount Sanitas Trail but still as vertically challenging. The main attraction of doing a loop around Mount Sanitas is to finish with an easy level walk on the Sanitas Valley trail. However, descending the East Ridge trail appears just as difficult as descending the Mount Sanitas trail so choosing the East Ridge + Sanitas Valley trail combo does not reduce the descent difficulty or length.
We believe the following picture shows where we made a wrong turn. Instead of heading south east, we should have continued east. As as result of our wrong turn, the trail forced us to do some reverse bouldering to lower ourselves down with a Kelty child carrier on our back. The interesting thing (or frustrating thing) about Mount Sanitas is the trailhead contains a brochure detailing the importance of hikers staying on the trail to protect wildlife habitats. Yet, at an important trail juncture, there were no signs to guide us and the trailhead did not provide a trail map to take with us. However, it should be noted that many people we were later seen having correctly completed the East Ridge trail so we will blame our mistake on our urgency to return to the trailhead before the afternoon storm came upon us.

Sanitas Valley Trail

The Sanitas Valley trail completes the Mount Sanitas loop. It is a level, wide trail suitable for running, BOB jogging strollers, leashed dogs, hikers, and nordic walkers. Mountain bike trails branch off of the Sanitas Valley trail on both the east and west sides.

Mount Sanitas Summit Video

The Mount Sanitas summit provides about a 240 degree view of Boulder to the east and of the front range to the north and south. In sum, this hike is vertically challenging both on the way up and coming down along the East Ridge trail. There are very few level spots on the trail. As a result of the trail's difficultly and close proximity to downtown Boulder, many of the people on the trail appeared to be doing a routine jaunt as part of their exercise routines.