I started from the Flattop Mountain Trail inside Rocky Mountain National Park, at the Bear Lake parking area, at 4am. I’ve been to this trailhead a few times, and it fills up before 6am, so plan on getting there early to secure a spot.
There is great signage in this area, leading you to the trailhead
I followed the class 1, well-marked trail for 5 miles up to Flattop Mountain, gaining almost 3000’ of elevation in the process
As soon as I hit treeline the sun began to rise, and I saw a small herd of elk, led by one male bull. He bugled to me, and the ptarmigans began to chirp .
Elk Bugling:
Ptarmigans waking up:
I continued following the class 1 trail to Flattop Mountain (which is really just a plateau).
At the top of the plateau is a sign. At this sign I turned left, following the cairns. Note: there isn’t a sign indicating there is a trail to the left, but there will be dozens of rather large cairns to follow towards Hallett Peak
While you could certainly summit Hallett Peak first, my main goal were some 13ers further ahead, so I skirted Hallett Peak to the right, staying at about 12360’, which kept me on rocky tundra.
As I headed southwest, staying on the rocky tundra, I could see both Otis Peak and Taylor Peak. It was my objective to summit Taylor Peak next, which meant I’d need to lose about 400’ of elevation to the Otis/Taylor Saddle (also where top of Andrews Glacier/Andrews Pass is located)
Here’s my route up to Taylor Peak from the Otis/Taylor Saddle. Note, my route up is solid, my route back down (after summiting Powell) is dotted. I would recommend these routes in the same order I completed them. The entire day consisted of class 2 terrain for all the peaks I summited.
Here are some close-up pictures of the terrain to the summit of Taylor Peak
I summited Taylor Peak at 8:30am
Taylor Peak:
From Taylor Peak I could see Powell Peak to the southeast.
To get there, I’d need to contour southwest down the south side of Taylor, and then follow the ridge towards Powell Peak. The route is obvious, and easily kept class 2.
Here’s the route from the Taylor/Powell Saddle
And some close-up pictures of the route
I aimed for the highpoint, a large rock on the ridge
Here are some closer pictures of the route to the summit
Powell Summit rock, easily scaled from the left
To be honest, I’m not sure where the true summit lies. When I got to the large rock outcropping I saw what looked like a cairn a short distance away, further southeast, but when I went further southeast to that point, the rock looked higher. When I got home my track showed the rock was the highpoint, but there wasn’t anything indicating it was (no cairn/summit register/etc.) A point further northwest looked high too, so I made sure to walk over there, but my photos are from the rock outcropping.
I then retraced my steps back to the Taylor/Powell Saddle
But instead of re-summiting Taylor Peak, I skirted the summit to the left, staying at around 12750’
This was all class 2, but required a bit of rock hopping
As I continued to round Taylor Peak, Otis Peak came into view. The path towards the summit was obvious
I made my way down to Andrews Pass, and then up towards Otis Peak
I summited Otis Peak at 12:45pm
Otis Peak:
I could see Hallett Peak to the northwest, and descended to the Otis/Hallett saddle
And then headed northeast up to the summit of Hallett Peak
I summited Hallett Peak at 1:45pm
Hallett Peak:
Now to head back to the trail. This was all class 2, and there were cairns to guide the way. Be careful not to aim for the obvious trail in the distance, as it will not lead you back to the trailhead. This is the route you should take. If you look carefully, you can see the sign you’re aiming for from earlier in the morning
At the junction I turned right, and followed the class 1 trail back to the trailhead
I made it back to my truck at 4pm, making this a 19.75 mile hike with 5983’ of elevation gain in 12 hours.
On the way out, I was stopped by another herd of elk, walking along the road.
I started from the Glacier Gorge trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park at 3:30am. There were already several parties in the parking lot (probably 10 vehicles), but didn’t see another person on my route all day. This is also a bus stop for access to Glacier Gorge (and lots of other hikes). All this means is that it was overly crowded the last 2 miles of the hike on my way down. Passing people became impossible, and more of a stroll as I hiked out with hundreds of other hikers.
I followed the class 1 trail, staying on the Mills Lake trail. There were wonderful signs that made getting lost difficult.
I passed Alberta Falls at 1.15 miles, and continued following the trail to Mills Lake
After hiking for 3.35 miles I passed Mills Lake, and at 3.85 miles I passed Jewel Lake. Side note: there’s great fishing here. Lots of hungry trout, eager to feast on any worm you drop in. The larger trout are in the stream above Jewel Lake, and in Mills Lake.
I continued following the class 1 trail all the way to Black Lake (6 miles in). This part of the trail had a lot of wood foot bridges, and rock slabs to cross. All class 1, but the rock slabs were tricky to navigate in the dark.
I made it to Black Lake, and continued on the class 1 trail, up a waterfall, and across more rock slabs.
Here the trail kind of fizzled out, but I continued following cairns as I crossed a small creek, and headed southwest towards McHenrys Peak. There are a ton of cairns in this area (circled in red).
Here’s the overall route to Frozen Lake (not pictured) and up Stone Man Pass. There are plenty of cairns to guide you, but for the rest of the hike be careful: there are a lot of granite slabs that are quite steep to navigate (all class 2), and slippery where wet.
Here are some close up pictures to Frozen Lake
I easily rock hopped and crossed the lake on its north side, and continued heading west towards Stone Man Pass
There are still tons of cairns in this area, but choose your route based on the best conditions. The rocks are very slippery where they are wet. I was aiming for the gully below Stone Man Pass.
I didn’t think the gully was that bad. I stayed right on my way up, but took the other side down. I’d recommend climbing up the left side of the gully, as it was more stable, but both were fine. Here are some pictures of the gully
Once at the top of the gully, I turned right and headed northwest towards McHenrys Peak. Everything you can see here is class 2, and there are cairns to guide your way.
I rounded the mountain, and was now on the west side of the peak. Here is got a bit trickier. There were still cairns to follow. I headed up a rock slab, and rock filled gully. This was easy class 3
Here’s the overall route of the rest of the climb. I felt this was difficult class 3, with some exposure.
There was a chimney to head up, and then a short but intense scramble to the summit
I summited McHenrys Peak at 9:50am
McHenrys Peak:
The summit looked like it could have several actual summits, so despite the large cairn and summit register, I made sure to walk all around the summit to make sure I’d actually summited.
Now to head back down. The trickiest part was descending the initial section, and finding my way back around the side of the mountain. Once I was there, it was easy to find my way to Stone Man Pass, and then back down to Frozen Lake.
And then I followed the cairns northeast, back towards the trail that would lead me to Black Lake
Then followed the trail all the way back to the trailhead.
I made it back to my truck at 2:30pm, making this a 17.46 mile hike with 4442’ of elevation gain, as per CalTopo. Strava told me it was a 15.02 mile hike with 6573’ of elevation gain. I tend to go with CalTopo when I write, for consistency purposes, especially since Strava tends to grossly exaggerate elevation gain.
Also, there were a few elk along the trail who didn’t seem bothered by my presence… they wouldn’t even look up from whatever they were eating to acknowledge me.
I started from the Glacier Gorge trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park at 3:30am. There were already several parties in the parking lot (probably 10 vehicles), but didn’t see another person on my route all day. This is also a bus stop for access to Glacier Gulch (and lots of other hikes). All this means is that it was overly crowded the last 2 miles of the hike on my way down. Passing people became impossible, and more of a stroll as I hiked out with hundreds of other hikers.
I followed the class 1 trail, staying on the Mills Lake trail. There were wonderful signs that made getting lost difficult.
I passed Alberta Falls at 1.15 miles, and continued following the trail to Mills Lake
After hiking for 3.35 miles I passed Mills Lake, and at 3.85 miles I passed Jewel Lake. Side note: there’s great fishing here. Lots of hungry trout, eager to feast on any worm you drop in. The larger trout are in the stream above Jewel Lake, and in Mills Lake.
I continued following the class 1 trail all the way to Black Lake (6 miles in). This part of the trail had a lot of wood foot bridges, and rock slabs to cross. All class 1, but the rock slabs were tricky to navigate in the dark.
I made it to Black Lake, and continued on the class 1 trail, up a waterfall, and across more rock slabs.
This is where my report may differ from others. I took a different route in than I did out at this point, and liked my route out better. It was easier to follow, and there were less willows/shrubs involved. Here’s the overall picture of what I did. There is a cairn circled in red, indicating the route to McHenry’s Peak. Don’t take that route, but leave the trail and head behind the bush. You will then easily see cairns that will guide you through the upper basin.
Once again, there is no established trail to Green Lake, but there are some tramped game trails (all covered in grass, not much dirt to be seen) and lots of cairns. This is also choose your own adventure. You’re aiming south, towards the mountains (circled in red). There are several small streams to cross in this area, all easily hop-able.
I navigated a bit to the right of the waterfall to get to Green Lake (cairns here too)
Once at Green Lake, I turned left and headed southeast. Here’s my overall route on scree, navigating around large boulders and rock slabs to keep this all class 2.
Here are some close-up pictures of my route up the gully, to the saddle
Once at the saddle, I turned right and headed up the ridge. I went directly up the ridge on the way up, which was class 3. I kept it class 2 on the way down by staying more to the left of the ridge.
Here are some pictures of the ridge.
I summited Pagoda Mountain at 9am. There was a plastic tube at the summit as a register, lacking a lid, but with a ziplock bag inside. I didn’t bother opening it.
Pagoda Mountain:
I had a great view of the Longs Peak keyhole route
Now to re-trace my steps back to the saddle, before the storm hit
And back down the scree to Green Lake
Once back at Green Lake, I turned right and followed the cairns north out of the basin
This time I went behind the rocks and picked up the old trail, circled in red
Then followed the trail all the way back to the trailhead. It started raining just as soon as I made it to treeline, accompanied by a flash of lightning, a loud boom, and a wide rumbling all around me.
I made it back to my truck at 1:30pm, making this a 17.74 mile hike with 4544’ of elevation gain in 10 hours.
I parked at the Sandbeach Lake Trailhead at Rocky Mountain National Park, and was on the trail at 4:30am.
The Sandbeach Lake Trail was a class 1 trail I took all the way to Sandbeach Lake. There were 2 creek crossings, but they had footbridges across.
It was 5 miles to Sandbeach Lake. Once at the lake, the fastest way to skirt the lake and find a trail is to go right here
But I wanted to see the lake, so I did, and then followed the lake past a small stream, and caught up with the trail there.
After crossing the creek, I followed the trail northeast to treeline. When the trail ended, there were plenty of cairns to guide the way (circled in red).
Once at treeline, I kept aiming for Mt Orton (unranked). There were cairns to mark the way until I was in front of Mt Orton
I then skirted Mt Orton to the left, and went through a very small saddle
I could now see an easy path to Chief Head’s ridge. Here’s the route I took
And some close-up pictures
Once on the ridge, I followed it .3 miles to the summit, on rocky terrain. I was able to keep it all class 2 by staying to the left.
There wasn’t a summit register, or a cairn, or a marker, so I just walked all over the rocky summit.
I summited Chiefs Head Peak at 11am
Chiefs Head Peak:
From the summit I had an amazing view of Pagoda, Longs, and Meeker
This was an out and back hike, so I turned and retraced my steps back down the mountain, around Mt Orton, and to Sandbeach Lake
The cairns picked up again, and I could now see Sandbeach Lake, so route finding was easy until I hit the trail.
Back at the lake, I picked up the Sandbeach Lake Trail, and took this class 1 trail all the way back to the trailhead.
I made it back to my truck at 3:15pm, making this an 18.17 mile hike with 5476’ of elevation gain in 10 hours 45 minutes.
I parked my truck at the Chapin Pass trailhead and was on the trail at 4am.
The trail starts out heading directly up to the pass.
After hiking for .25 miles I came to an obvious junction and turned right, heading towards Chapin, Chiquita, and Ypsilon summits
The trail was very easy to follow. I followed it east and rounded the north side of Mt Chapin (saving it for later).
The trail changed from Class 1 to Class 2 as I made my way up to the top of Chiquita, heading northeast.
I made it to the summit just as the sun was starting to rise
I summited Mt Chiquita at 6am
Mt Chiquita:
From the summit of Mt Chiquita I could see the summit of Ypsilon Mountain to the north.
It was an easy ridge walk to get there, with a small false summit along the way. I just followed the ridge down 270’, and then up 722’ to the summit of Ypsilon.
I summited Ypsilon Mountain at 7am
Mt Ypsilon:
This was going to be an out and back for me, so I retraced my steps back to Chiquita, losing 722’ of elevation, and then gaining 270’
Back at the summit of Mt Chiquita I continued following the ridge southwest, back to the trail. There is a trail to the summit of Mt Chapin from there.
Here are some close up pictures of the class 1 trail
I summited Mt Chapin at 8:30am
Mt Chapin:
I turned and retraced my seps back to the trail below
Once back at the junction with the main trail, I turned left and followed it west to Chapin Pass
I even saw a few bull elk lounging along the way
Back at Chapin Pass, I turned left, and followed it back to the parking area, which was now overflowing with dozens more vehicles than could fit in the area. If you want to do this hike, get there early.
I made it back to my truck at 9:15am, making this a 10.2 mile hike with 3555’ of elevation gain in 5 hours, 15 minutes.
I made it to the Lawn Lake trailhead exhausted. It’s been a fun month, but not one in which I’ve gotten much sleep. I was on the trail at 4:30am.
I followed the class 1, Lawn Lake Trail, for 5.7 miles
After hiking for 5.7 miles I came to a junction with the Black Canyon Trail, and took the Black Canyon Trail past Lawn Lake, and all the way to the Fairchild/Hagues Saddle.
Just after passing the lake I came across 3 bull moose enjoying breakfast. I took a few pictures and gave them their space
Bull Moose at Lawn Lake:
I continued following the class 1 trail up to the saddle
I crossed a small stream. You can clearly see the trail on the other side. The trail became faint in areas, but there were cairns and the trail became easier to see near the saddle.
Just before making it to the saddle, I turned left and this is the route I took to the summit of Fairchild, following the ridge southwest
Here are some close up pictures. Note, the boulders become very large near the top. They’re all stable, but larger than vehicles. My hiking shoes gripped the rocks nicely, but they would be treacherous if they’d been wet.
I summited Fairchild Mountain at 9:45am
Fairchild Mountain:
There was a plastic tube summit register I couldn’t open, and a rock wind break at the summit.
From Fairchild, I looked back at the saddle and could see Hagues Peak, and my route. Now is a good time to get a visual of the way you want to summit, as it’s difficult to see from the saddle/below. This is the route I took, which kept it low class 3, but mostly class 2.
I made my way back to the Hagues/Fairchild saddle
And then followed the ridge until I made it to 12700’.
I then headed northeast towards the ridge, staying on class 2 terrain. Here are some close ups of my route
Also, there were more moths than I’d ever seen this far above treeline, and dozens of crows taking advantage of the situation
I gained access to the ridge with a few easy class 3 maneuvers.
One on the ridge, I turned left and followed it through more easy class 3 terrain west to the summit. If there’s an option, always go right around the boulders.
The summit is circled in red
It’s just a little further southwest past the tower
I summited Hagues Peak at 12:25pm
Hauges Peak:
There were several benchmarks/elevation markers, and another summit tube (full of various loose pieces of paper, so I didn’t bother signing one).
Next on the agenda for the day was Mummy Mountain. I turned and headed back down the ridge the way I’d summited, and then crossed PT 13302, and headed up Mummy Mountain. Here’s my overall route
And some step by step pictures
The terrain became rocky near the top, but this all remained class 2
I summited Mummy Mountain at 2pm
Mummy Mountain:
The weather had held out so far, but on the summit of Mummy Mountain I heard my first clap of thunder in the distance, and wanted to get back down to treeline as soon as possible. I followed the ridge southeast on class 2 terrain.
I aimed for the drainage, and followed it until I made it back to the Black Canyon Trail
I followed the Black Canyon Trail North until the junction with the Lawn Lake Trail
There I took the Lawn Lake Trail back to the trailhead. It rained the entire way. Not the fun, misty rain, but buckets of large water droplets. The sky thundered all around, after large flashes of lightning.
I made it back to my truck at 5:30pm, making this a 24.7 mile hike with 6931’ of elevation gain in 13 hours.
I was invited by Anne on
this hike, and was thrilled with the invite!
I’d initially wanted to hike a 14er today, but the rough weather all
week meant lots of snow everywhere over 14000 feet in Colorado, so this was the
perfect opportunity to get out and hike on a day a 14er wasn’t the best
option.
Once again, I wasn’t
sure if I’d be able to go on this hike until the day before. I felt really bad about my lack of commitment
early on, but I’d hate to RSVP and then later retract it. When I realized I’d actually be able to go I
was stoked! We started out with about 6
or 7 people invited, but there ended up being 3 of us hiking in the end.
I was worried about the
weather. Really worried actually. It had snowed in the region all week. All current weather reports indicated snow
was inevitable, along with cold temperatures and wind. However, the cold weather wasn’t supposed to
set in until the afternoon.
I mentally didn’t want
to hike in the cold, but I also really wanted to make a few hiking friends, and
saw this as the perfect opportunity. I
decided to bundle up and take the plunge.
We met at 3:30am at the
Woodmen Park n Ride. I drove. Actually, I insisted I drive. I really like to drive, and this way if I
ended up bailing due to weather I’d be able to sit in my truck and not feel bad
about using up gas for heat. I was
wearing 4 layers of clothing, but was worried because I didn’t bring a
scarf.
It only took us about 2
hours to get there. I was surprised the
drive went by so fast, even after stopping half way for coffee. We didn’t see any wildlife on the road, besides
the tail end of a fox.
The hike to Sky Pond
begins from Glacier Gorge Trailhead in RMNP.
The parking lot was almost full when we arrived at 6am. Even though this was a National Park, there
was no way to pay at the entrance gate?
Usually there are self pay envelopes you leave when you arrive
before/after hours, but we weren’t able to find any, despite searching. Oh well, we’d pay on the way out.
We began the trail at
6:15am. It was 45 degrees outside with a strong wind (25mph?). I was glad it was beginning to get light
outside because I didn’t have a map. In
fact, I hadn’t done any research on this trail, which is absolutely nothing
like me. Usually I’m uber prepared. The only research I’d done was on the weather. Luckily Anne knew where we were going and had
a map. Both David and I let her
lead. It was a good thing too: there were several trails that intersected at
various points with our trail. It was
easy to go the wrong way if you didn’t pay attention to the signs.
At this point the sun
was beginning to rise and we started seeing a bit of Alpine Glow.
At just under a mile we
passed Alberta Falls, one of the more popular hiking destinations in Rocky
Mountain National Park. This scenic 30-foot waterfall thunders down a small
gorge on Glacier Creek, and is named after Alberta Sprague, the wife of Abner
Sprague, one of the original settlers in the Estes Park area. It was very difficult to take pictures of the
falls, so we didn’t. The next section of trail, between Alberta Falls and Mills
Junction, was rehabilitated by the National Park Service and the Rocky Mountain
Conservancy. The entire trail to this point was easy to hike,
and very well maintained.
This hike was full of
beautiful, small lakes. The first lake
we encountered was Loch Vale, better known as The Loch. It was very cold and
very windy at this lake. This beautiful
subalpine lake is situated at 10,190 feet.
We reached the base of Timberline
Falls, high above the trail. From this vantage point the trail begins to climb
a series of rock steps. In other words, you climb the waterfall. It was still very cold and there was a lot of
ice on the trail, so this is where we stopped to put on our microspikes.
From here the trail
continues up a chute to the right of the falls. This is a fairly challenging
scramble that climbs roughly 100 feet, and requires hand holds and the use of
all four limbs while ascending. The first 30 feet or so are the most difficult,
but beyond that it’s a relatively easy scramble. Just to complicate things a
little more, portions of the climb has water flowing down the route (the
waterfall). It’s nothing exceedingly dangerous, but we did have to take our
time and be extremely cautious. This is the point where many people turn around
on the hike.
At the top of the climb
we reached the Lake of Glass, an incredibly beautiful alpine lake with
outstanding views of The Sharkstooth, Taylor Peak and Powell Peak. This lake is
also sometimes referred to as Glass Lake. And it was WINDY! I was almost blown over a couple of times,
but once we started walking it wasn’t so bad.
From here the trail
becomes fairly rocky and rugged as it travels along the west side of the lake.
We finally reached Sky
Pond, which sits at an elevation of 10,900 feet. The views here are simply
spectacular. The alpine lake fills a cirque basin, and is surrounded on three
sides by sheer cliff walls.
Off to the right are the
granite spires of The Sharkstooth. Against the backdrop of a cobalt blue sky,
the scene makes for an extremely dramatic view.
The mountain directly
across the lake is 13,153-foot Taylor Peak, and towards the south is
13,208-foot Powell Peak. I’ll come back
for those two someday.
Even though this hike didn’t include a summit, we’d
had a great hike. But when we saw the
large formations staring at us from across the pond we knew we wanted
more. So we made our own path across the
pond and towards the large formations.
We looked up at the gulley, decided it was doable, and started to
climb.
It was a bit challenging due to the ice and snow, but
we made it to the top! I loved how
everyone just went for it, knowing we’d all be able to make it (or just willing
to turn back if it seemed too difficult… we had to at least try!).
The views from here were amazing as well!
The best part?
This is when the sun came out! I
was pretty much freezing at this point due to the wind, but the sun was
absolutely amazing!!!
We met a couple of hikers here who had the same idea
we did, but went a slightly different route.
Our route ended up being easier, so they followed us on the way back
down. They were fun to chat with, and
seemed like a couple of fun guys! They
even took Anne’s camera for a couple of selfies!
As we hiked back we looked back on the trail we’d
hiked to get there.
On the way up we hadn’t seen many people, but on the
way down we encountered a steady stream of hikers. This became a bit dangerous on Timberline
Falls, but we were thrilled most of the ice from the morning had dissipated and
it was now just wet in most areas and icy in just a few.
We gave the other climbers some pointers and headed
on. It was really nice to be with other
competent hikers who were sure of themselves while hiking.
We made it back to the Loch and met a couple that took
a fun picture of David, Anne, and I
The colors on the trees had already started to fade,
but there was a little left to enjoy.
When we made it back to the trailhead we looked at the
map of our hike. We’d visited a bunch of
lakes!
We all seemed to get along pretty well, talking and
hiking at about the same pace. After the
hike we all decided to head down to Estes Park for a beer. It was about 2pm, and there was quite a bit
of traffic. We learned we were in the
middle of an Elk Festival, and the town was overflowing with tourists. Funny thing, we didn’t see any elk, but many
people had that morning (we did see them lounging in the RMNP Elk Viewing area
however).
We stopped at Rock Cut Brewing Company for some
excellent beer and some fried food out of a food truck that was pretty tasty
(fries, burgers, cauliflower covered in parmesan garlic and tater tots). There were lots of wasps, and some pretty
good conversations with a bunch of people we met who were staying at the
Stanley Hotel. They’d been friends for decades
and were vacationing together for fun.
The drive home took twice as long as the drive there
due to traffic. There were several
accidents and even a death investigation on the I25, so we didn’t get back
until after 6pm. It was totally worth it
though! I’m pretty sure I made some new
hiking friends, and I had a great time!
Roundtrip Length was about 10 miles, with elevation gain
of about 2000 feet.
Side note: "National
Public Lands Day is being celebrated this Saturday, Sept. 30, across the US
which means you can get in free to all national parks across the country for
FREE. And yes, that includes Colorado’s four national parks as well.“
– we were lucky to get a parking space at all!
Wild Wanderer 