Emily and I visited the Rocky Mountains National Park near Estes Park at the start of October. We flew to Denver from Chicago. Emily took a seat in the cockpit prior to take-off.
While hiking, we had pretty good weather though the nights were cool. We spent three nights in the mountains on our hike. Our walk started from the Longs Peak trail-head in the east of the park. (We hitch-hiked there from near the Beaver Meadows information centre with a friendly couple from Boulder.) And then we were on our way!
In addition to a selection of photographs, I have included some stats from our hike that were recorded using a GPS and heart-rate monitor.
Day 1: 8.5 km, 500 m of climbing (
Garmin stats)
After starting out on the Longs Peak trail, Emily and I turned on to the Eugenia Mine trail heading north and passed through the Moore Park campsite. This little robber bird and his mate were loitering at that spot.
And then we took in the view half-way up Estes Cone before heading back towards the Goblins Forest.
After stopping to purify water (using a UV lamp) and cook some food (on an alcohol burner), the brisk pace we set wasn't enough to save us from arriving after dark at our campsite, the Goblins Forest.
Day 2: 10.8 km, 628 m of climbing (
Garmin stats)
Our second day of hiking was the most physically challenging. I purified some more water from the nearby stream before we set out.
Friendly chipmunks, obviously familiar with hikers, appeared along the path the cheer us on and quietly implore us to had over a pistachio nut.
The junction with the Chasm Lake trail provided us with a great view of the lake and of the imposing East Face of Longs Peak.
I took my turn posing in front of Longs Peak too.
We continued our climb to Granite Pass. At that altitude (over 12000 feet), it was cold and windy. I had no luck getting the stove working, so lunch was postponed until we could get back under the tree-line on the north-east side of Battle Mountain.
An afternoon storm gathered over Thatchtop and the Arrowhead. We copped a bit of hail on our way down but the sun came out again after a little while and we had a pretty easy stroll down-hill then to our venue for the second evening in the park, Boulder Brook campsite.
Day 3 (partial): 5.7 km, 116 m of climbing (
Garmin stats)
Our third day of hiking was relatively easy. We started the day with enormous pancakes (after I had managed to get the stove going; the fueled cooled down below its flashpoint unless you kept it in your pocket).
We followed N. Longs Peak trail to Glacier Creek and then headed south along the edge of Mills Lake (where we took our lunch and my GPS watch ran out of batteries).
Shortly after lunch, we arrived at our camp, the appropriately-named Glacier Gorge campsite, around the bend in the following photograph. This photo was taken looking south, back down the gorge.
With rather a bit of afternoon left, Emily and I hoisted our packs up and into the trees and continued down to the back of the gorge to bathe in Black Lake, above the Ribbon Falls. We hoisted our packs into the trees while they were unattended (and at night too) so that they would not be accessible to the black bears with whom we were sharing the park. We even used a bear-canister.
Day 4: no stats available (out of battery)
There's no map available online for our fourth day of hiking. We simply followed the Glacier Creek trail all of the way back to the Storm Pass trailhead.
The park is dotted with Aspen groves that are spectacular at this time of the year.
Thankfully, some friendly travellers gave us a lift back in to town and even stopped with us to see the Elk. These enormous animals come down on the the open land around the town in late-Autumn to socialize and are not really disturbed by gawking people and their vehicles.
After this, well-earned hot showers were had. I slept like a log and then we were off to California, the subject of my next post.
