Are there any places to hike (14ers, 13ers etc.) that are not affected by the gov shutdown? Or do most of these hikes sit in national parks? It seems that most of the maps I have seen and hikes I normally do are in national parks which are said to be closed during shutdown. Any insight on this?

I have no idea how it works in Colorado, and how strict they are being. But I am from a National Park and the park rangers have been really cool about letting people go in and not writing tickets for the people who are following the rules and on foot. It could be the same thing there, and you might be fine doing what you want without all the other people around!

there are plenty of places to hike in CO not affected. RMNP is open again but no pups so no hiking there, i never pay a fee to go hike so not really an issue. where are you looking? we are hiking this sat up near Brec.

Just curious for now. Last week I was going to do a short hike out of Boulder but their site detailed too many closures from the floods (half a trail would be open and the other half closed, etc.) Thinking of possibly doing James Peak via St Marys soon though.

check out my report on James, its a nice trail from marys.

Just back from a hiking trip in an area administered by the Nat. Park Service.
I met a ranger, who turned out to be an administrator, and I thanked her for continuing to work to protect our national heritage. She was grateful. She told me unbelievable stories about vandalism and destruction, confrontations with idiots who blame the Dept. of the Interior for the shutdown.
I asked what would happen if I stepped over the police line tape to hike. She said, "I would tell you the park is closed."
So that's what we did this week. We stepped over the tape and hiked anyway. We saw no other people at all, no rangers, nobody.