Your next Colorado trail guide: A 300-pound llama

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By Sarah Sekula, published on CNN.com

Going backpacking in Colorado is a no-brainer: There are 58 peaks exceeding 14,000 feet, hundreds of miles of trails and, of course, dreamy views of snowcapped mountains.

For long treks, however, a major drawback is toting around all that gear. But what if you had llamas along to do all the heavy lifting? That’s when the experience starts to feels a little less treacherous and a lot more like glamping.

For hundreds of years llamas have been used as pack animals in South America. In Colorado, on the other hand, llama trekking has only been around since the 1980s and still probably comes as a surprise to most.