The Problem: Hikers compare trails on distance, elevation, difficulty, and ratings, but that info is spread across different sites. I wanted to turn it into one clear, useful view.

 

My Role: I built every table, formula, and chart from scratch.

 

Process

1. Compiled data on 20 popular Colorado trails from AllTrails and Colorado State Parks

2. Built pivot tables comparing trails by difficulty, region, and trail type, plus a PivotChart of elevation gain by difficulty

3. Added color-coded conditional formatting for difficulty levels and used IF and LARGE formulas to pull the top 5 rated trails

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Result: Expert trails gain over 10 times more elevation than easy ones (5,100 ft vs. 480 ft), but ratings barely change across difficulty levels, ranging from 4.54 to 4.70. Out and back trails make up 70% of the list and average about three times the elevation gain of loop trails. Maroon Bells Loop is the top rated trail at 4.9.

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What I Learned: The most useful insight wasn't the obvious one. I expected harder trails to have lower ratings, but people rated them about the same, which showed me the value of checking assumptions against the data.