Time is running out to see Colorado’s year-round alpine glaciers before they recede into extinction — which is, in some cases, a couple decades off, according to a study from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.
In the Ice Age, glaciers carved much of Colorado’s alpine landscape. Wide mountain valleys — now dotted with towns and zig-zagged by hiking trails — are glacial byproducts of millennia past. But these days, only 14 tiny scraps of moving ice are left.
鷡շ:Colorado faces a glacier-less future as warmer temps climb to higher altitudes
Many are nestled under peaks where the sun can’t heat them up and melt their surfaces, their shadowy locations also making them hard to reach, said Tad Pfeffer, one of the authors of the glacier study. Late summer is the best time to see the remaining ones before they’re surrounded by snow.
Here are five glacier hikes worth investigating while the weather holds:
