Take a hike through local history on Mount Sanitas in Boulder

Sanitas is Latin for “health,” and hikers are bound to boost theirs while tackling the challenging climb up Mount Sanitas. It’s the area’s rich history, though, that draws this writer to the top of Boulder’s 6,863-foot peak.

Arrive early enough, before all the other day hikers turn up, and you might snag a spot in the small Centennial lot off Sunshine Canyon Drive, which services both the Centennial and Mount Sanitas trailheads. In a pinch, park on the edge of town, off Mapleton Avenue, and warm up your legs with a quick leaf-peeping stroll through the Mapleton Hill Historic District, where wide, hilly streets are lined with a variety of trees growing between old Victorian and Queen Anne mansions.

Wherever you park, look for the Mount Sanitas Trailhead on the north side of Sunshine Canyon Drive. There are three access points, and all of them will spit you out at a welcome sign that’s wedged between the Mount Sanitas and Sanitas Valley trails. If you’re hiking with friends, this is a great place to stop for a quiz. “How would you pronounce it?” you might ask, pointing to the welcome sign. (And how would you pronounce it, I wonder?)

Most people will say “suh-KNEE-tis” — emphasis on the long “e” sound — and that’s your cue to dive into a quick history lesson as you head north on Sanitas Valley Trail, a relatively flat, wide path paralleling Dakota Ridge.

The correct pronunciation – “SAN-i-tuhs” – dates back to the days when tuberculosis sanatoriums were about as common as wild sunflowers. In 1895, nearly 130 years ago, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg — yes, you know him from his cereal! — opened the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium as a “heath center of the west,” according to early brochures available at the Carnegie Library for Local History, 1125 Pine St.

At Fourth Avenue and Mapleton, on a 100-acre tract, the original Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium campus consisted of a stately, five-story, veneered brick main building plus 11 quaint cottages, all planted about 2 miles from Mount Sanitas’ looming peak. There was a bakery, too, and a laundry building, and eventually Kellogg and his team opened a natural food factory and on-site dairy that included 70 head of Guernsey and Holstein cattle. Some local historians, I’m told, think Boulder’s robust natural foods scene began right here at the sanitarium.

A Seventh-day Adventist, Kellogg proffered the then-novel idea that diet plays a role in one’s overall health, and treatment at the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium was almost spa-like, with a Blue Zones emphasis on whole foods, regular exercise and community engagement, including social gatherings and morning worship held daily in the parlor. Other healing offerings included music, lectures on health and well-being, and treatments such as electrotherapy and hydrotherapy.

By 1904, people with infectious diseases were expressly prohibited at the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium. (Several brochures from the era contain this statement: “The Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium admits none suffering with tuberculosis, or other contagious, infectious, or offensive diseases.”)

Indeed, at Kellogg’s facility, it was more about restoration and wellness versus treatment from disease — though the main building did house medical devices and treatment rooms. In the earliest days, the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium employed four physicians — two men and two women, all Christians — plus a handful of “nurses of both sexes,” according to brochures, and a dietitian “ready at all times to assist the individual in the selection of proper foods.”

Good health has never been cheap! Semi-private rooms in the main building cost patients $5 per day, but those wanting a private room with their own toilet were looking at $7 to $7.50. Private cottages, meanwhile, cost up to $8, the modern equivalent of $300, which isn’t so steep until you consider that examination fees, professional treatments and activities were all individually priced. An average patient might be looking at the 2024 equivalent of $800 or $1,000 nightly. (I don’t want to say Kellogg nickeled and dimed his patients, but…)

At the intersection of the Sanitas Valley and Dakota Ridge trails, I recommend hanging a right onto the single-track Dakota Ridge Trail, a rockier course offering a bird’s-eye view of the draw below. Dakota Ridge Trail continues for 0.8 of a mile, passing crumbling smokestacks, a stone shelter and an arch — relics from the sanitarium days.

As you wind around Dakota Ridge Trail, keep in mind that you’re hiking the same routes Kellogg’s patients used more than a century ago. Employees at the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium led regular group treks to the top of Mount Sanitas. Sanitarium brochures, in fact, promoted not just the facility, but the abundance of outdoor recreation available, including burro rides up the steep mountain side. One advertisement from 1902 reads, “Nearly everyone can reach the peak by simply taking his time.”

That’s still true today. About a mile into your journey, you’ll begin to gain some major elevation as Sanitas Valley Trail becomes the zig-zagging East Ridge Trail, a fully exposed path that gains more than 1,000 feet of elevation in under a mile.

Don’t be surprised when things start to get a little hairy as the narrow trail winds through big rocks and boulders and becomes increasingly difficult to follow. Pay attention to your footing, and keep an eye out for metal trail markers. This is a popular, heavily trafficked route, so if all else fails, follow other hikers who seem to know where they’re going. About 1.7 miles into the trek, you’ll pass through a wide squeeze, and an obvious trail picks back up. You’ll descend for just a moment — sorry, false summit! — and then there’s one last quarter-mile push to the summit.

You need to bring water and/or hydration drinks on this hot and rigorous excursion. Take a well-earned break at the top, and try to imagine what Kellogg’s patients might have felt all those years ago while looking out on magnificent panoramas and all the towering Engelmann spruce populating the hillsides. Between 1895 and 1955, the Boulder-Colorado Sanitarium served thousands of patients before being replaced by Boulder Memorial Hospital, which was demolished and (mostly) recycled in 2023.

To make a loop, walk across the peak and descend via Mount Sanitas Trail. Unless you’re up for a much longer hike, make sure you don’t veer off onto Lion’s Lair. This last leg of the route opens to sweeping views of Sunshine Canyon and the Continental Divide.

A couple of staircases ease the descent in a few areas where the trail eroded. But be warned: This downhill segment isn’t kind to sore knees. If you aren’t feeling the full loop — or your joints won’t appreciate a steep plunge — this hike is wonderful as a 2-mile out-and-back jaunt on Sanitas Valley Trail. While I like the Dakota Ridge-East Ridge-Mount Sanitas pattern described above, there’s no right or wrong direction, and many hikers reverse the order, climbing up Mount Sanitas Trail to descend the East Ridge.