Places to Go: Victoria Glades Conservation Area

Victoria Glades Conservation Area

Where the early bird gets the sunrise

July can be a tough time to get outside, but Victoria Glades Conservation Area (CA) in Jefferson County offers visitors an additional reason to get out early and beat the heat — exceptional sunrises.

At just short of 240 acres, Victoria Glades CA is small by comparison, but its mixture of glades and woodlands provide plenty of openings through which to catch the rising sun, said Regional Resource Management District Supervisor Raenhard Wesselschmidt.

“You should be able to look over that glade and have some pretty good sunrise views across that open valley,” Wesselschmidt said.

Come for the sunrise, stay for the wildflowers.

“At that time, there’s probably going to be quite a bit of things blooming out there,” he said. “So, a lot of your wildflowers, your coneflowers and black-eyed Susans, all that kind of stuff. You should be getting into that blooming phase on a lot of those different wildflowers.”

The area’s 2.3-mile trail gives hikers the best of both habitats.

“It’s going to be some steep and kind of rocky terrain up and down,” he said. “It comes through the glade, but then it also has quite a bit of forested areas that it runs through.”