Wild Basin Trailhead – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 19.98 miles

Elevation Gain: 5159’

This hike, while long, was much easier than anticipated. I arrived at the Wild Basin Trailhead inside Rocky Mountain National Park and was on the trail at 4am. I’m sure most of you know this, but the park has an entrance fee, and timed entry for this trailhead between the hours of 9am-2pm. The trailhead holds dozens of vehicles, and there’s a bathroom there.

The trailhead starts at the west end of the parking area and is clearly marked.

I followed the trail all the way to Thunder Lake. This is a class 1 trail with many junctions, but they are all clearly labeled. I just kept heading towards Thunder Lake, and if Thunder Lake wasn’t on the trail sign (which it wasn’t always), I followed the signs to Ouzel Falls, and then Thunder Lake was on all the rest of the signs. Along the way I passed Calypso Falls and Ouzel Falls. Here are some pictures of the trail and junctions to Thunder Lake:

After hiking for a total of 7.2 miles I made it to Thunder Lake, and the Patrol Cabin (which was now boarded up for the winter).

Here the trail continues, skirting the north side of Thunder Lake, then continuing into the trees, heading west all the way up to Lake of Many Winds.

At Lake of Many Winds the trail stops, but the route finding is class 2 and easy to figure out. I kept heading west, aiming for the saddle between 12er Tanima and Mt Alice, otherwise known as Boulder-Grand Pass.

This part is choose your own adventure, but the remainder of the hike is class 2. You’re just trying to gain the saddle. I’d been here before (when I was climbing Isolation), and just went down the scree, which worked well. However, this morning I wanted to try the gully to the right. It was more solid than the scree and offered hand and foot holds. You can take the scree up as well, as all routes here lead to the same place.

Once at the saddle, I turned right and ascended the ridge north. The true summit is to the west (as per LoJ and my Peakbagger app, and summit register placement).

This ridge has a gentle slope and is filled with tundra and large boulders. I was easily able to navigate around the boulders, staying on tundra most of the way. I just kept heading north. I gained 1250’ of elevation in about 1.1 miles to the summit from the pass.

Eventually I could see the summit of Mt Alice come into view

This is the overall route I took to get there

The boulders here were stable, and rock-hopping was quick. Before I knew it, I was at the summit of Mt Alice (which had a cairn and a summit register, but the register was open and empty).

I summited Mt Alice at 9am

Mt Alice:

Now to head back to Boulder-Grand Pass, I turned around and headed south, back the way I’d ascended.

I took the same gully back down to Lake of Many Winds

And then picked up the trail that would lead me back to Thunder Lake.

I skirted Thunder Lake to the north, then followed the clearly marked trail signs for the Wild Basin Ranger Station back to the Wild Basin Trailhead

I made it back to my truck at 12:45pm, making this a 19.98 mile hike with 5159’ of elevation gain in 8 hours, 45 minutes.

On to the next trailhead!

RT Length: 20.7 miles

Elevation Gain: 5309’

I’m going to do my best to keep this class 2/2+ here. I made it unnecessarily class 3 in areas, but they can be avoided. I started at the Wild Basin Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park. I was on the trail at 4am. The beginning of the trail is obvious.

I’m not going to detail the approach to Bluebird Lake, as I’ve already done that in previous reports and the trail is class 1 trail the entire way. Just follow the signs towards Bluebird Lake. If Bluebird Lake isn’t on the sign, follow the one that says Ouzel Lake. The signs say it’s 6.4 miles to Bluebird Lake.

Now the fun begins! The class 1 trail that got me to Bluebird Lake stopped at Bluebird Lake.

I was able to find some faint game trails here, but like I said, they were faint. This was my next objective, a ramp in the distance:

And my overall route to get there.

I was able to keep this class 2, but there are class 3 options. First, I descended down to the lake, then ascended a class 2 ramp. There’s an easy class 3 ramp here as well.

At the top of the ramps was a trail for a short distance heading west.

This is the route I took to get to Lark Pond, aiming for a ramp in the distance

And some step-by-step pictures

Now at Lark Pond, I stayed to the right of the pond to get to Pipit Lake. There weren’t any trails here.

Yay! Pipit Lake!

I skirted the left side of the lake, heading towards the grassy gully. This involved rock hopping on stable rock.

If you’re following my GPX file, you’ll note I ascended to the left on the rocky area. I wouldn’t recommend this, as it’s extremely steep. I ended up gravitating towards the rocks to avoid the steepness of the scree, and got into sketchy class 3 territory (lots of very lose rocks the size of bowling balls on top and around larger rocks, forming small, unstable gullies). Instead, this can be kept class 2 by taking the grassy gully up.

Once at the top of the grassy gully I turned left, and ascended the slope. Yes, it’s steep. This is class 2+, but luckily there isn’t a lot of scree. Instead, these rocks are fairly stable (still check your footing for loose rocks). This is also choose your own adventure. The entire slope goes. It’s about 1200’ of elevation gain from Pipit Lake to the ridge.