Saddleback Mountain (9,568) and Snyder Mountain (9,876) by Brian Schultz Saturday July 29, 2017

Saddleback Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.3 miles from parking area on Saddle Ridge Drive
Elevation gain: 770'
Start to finish: 48 minutes
Participants: Brian Schultz and grandson Tyler

With the monsoon rains once again changing plans, we settled for some lower elevation peaks. I'd read Ryan Kowalski's report on this peak and it sounded like a fun one so we drove in toward Denver to the Beaver Brook exit off I-70. We crossed to the west side of I-70, turned right on Hyland Drive which turns into Saddleback Drive, and followed it to Saddle Ridge Drive. There is parking for two cars at a sharp switchback with a sign indicating Clear Creek Open Space. One spot was already taken so we knew someone else was on the trail.

We started up at 9:30 AM and met the other hiker just below the summit. He was a local who's done the peak many times and after a quick chat, we continued on and arrived on top at 9:55. Fast and easy! We checked to see if another point was higher before departing and quickly reached the parking area at 10:18.

Snyder Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.6 miles from Sinton Road
Elevation gain: 300'
Start to finish: 32 minutes
Participants: Brian Schultz and grandson Tyler

We parked off Sinton road from the Squaw Pass road at an information kiosk. We began at 11:15 and made quick order of reaching the summit. This is another fast and easy hike through the trees and we returned to our parking area at 11:47. It started raining so we decided to get lunch and see how the weather looked afterward. It kept raining so we took a driving tour around Denver's city center to kill some time before I dropped Tyler off at the airport.