Rocky Mountain NP 2008
July 22nd through August 5th
Trip Reports
Links to trip reports, with pictures, are on the left. The hikes are listed in the order we hiked them.
Vacation Overview
This is the eighth time we've visited RMNP. Ben stayed home again this year. He's not a hiking fan, but he's taking a couple summer classes at the University of Minnesota, so he's got a good excuse. So it's just Ali, Sandy, and me.
Day 1 - Tuesday, July 22nd - On the Road
It was an uneventful day. We left Burnsville Minnesota at 9:50am, and arrived in North Platte Nebraska at 8:15pm to stay for the night. We stopped once for gas along the way.
Day 2 - Wednesday, July 23rd - Arrival in Estes Park
We left North Platte about 7:30am, and stopped in Sidney for a big breakfast at Perkins. It was around 12:30pm when we arrived in Estes Park. After checking into our cabin, we went to town for groceries. In the afternoon, Sandy and I drove to the end of county road 66 to the East Portal. We hiked a bit on the Wind River trail, and planned to climb Emerald Mountain, but turned back due to rain. Later, I drove over to the Moraine Park area, and took a few pictures.
Day 3 - Thursday, July 24th - Pool of Jade from the Bear Lake TH
Last year we attempted this hike on our last day. It was certainly an attainable goal, but after all we had done, burn-out was setting in. While we wanted to get out and hike, we'd had our fill of rigorous climbs. So after making it about a third of the way from Emerald Lake to Pool of Jade we turned back satisfied. This year we put Pool of Jade first on the list.
Day 4 - Friday, July 25th - Emerald Mountain from the East Portal TH
This was a quick, easy hike, similar to Eagle Cliff. The views during the climb are very nice, and the mountain itself is a pretty one. After descending, we continued along the Wind River trail to the junction with the Storm Pass trail. We'd never hiked this section before, and thought it might be a good fourth route to Estes Cone. From the summit of Emerald Mountain we got a good look at two other peaks, Thunder and Lightening. They're between Emerald Mountain and Estes Cone, to the south. We're thinking they might be good bushwhacking adventures on a future trip.
Day 5 - Saturday, July 26th - Hunters Creek drainage from the Sandbeach Lake TH
Today we hiked upstream along Hunters Creek out the drainage between Sandbeach Lake and the base of Meekers south face. A pretty area that we hadn't been in before. We left the Sandbeach Lake trail just before crossing the bridge over Hunters Creek, and followed a sinuous trail along the east side of the creek. On the way back, we continued on the Sandbeach trail to the lake, and watched climbers on the Narrows and Homestretch.
Day 6 - Sunday, July 27th - S-Gully
Our original goal this morning was Thatchtop via ths S-Gully, and down the other side past Shelf and Solitude. However, after being distracted by irrelevant cairns, we ended up wandering too far east where we could see Jewel Lake. A similar thing happened a few years ago, the first time we tried to find the gully. This time, though, we circled back, and found it. Unfortunately, it was already about the time we'd expected to be close to the summit. So we called it a day, and headed back. Regardless, it was actually a pretty good hike with some nice scenery. And, since we were able to descend on the correct route, we were fully prepared for success on the next attempt.
Day 7 - Monday, July 28th - Otis Peak via the east ridge
Originally this was the day for the RMNP Forum group hike on CCY. However, when we all arrived at Old Fall River Road, it was closed. Apparently an "incident" had to be cleared from the road. So with that plan nixed, half the group decided to climb Mt. Ida, while Igloo Ed joined Ali, Sandy, and me on a climb of Otis Peak. Ed took the lead, and led us on his off-trail route to the east face of Otis, and then up onto the east ridge. We all thought this was a much nicer route onto the ridge then the one we took last year. Sandy and Ali reached the summit well ahead of Ed and me, then crossed over to Flattop, and descended in rain and hail to Bear Lake. Ed and I descended Andrews Glacier, and made our way back to Bear Lake mostly off-trail. And 3 hours behind Sandy and Ali.
Day 8 - Tuesday, July 29th - Lake of the Clouds from the Colorado River TH
This morning we drove Trail Ridge Road to the Colorado River TH. The plan was to hike 7 miles to the end of the trail, and then scramble up what we thought was a short 400ft talus slope. However, what we found at trail's end was a large basin filled with rolling mounds of talus. The equivalent of a huge Longs boulder field. On the far side was the waterfall from the lake's outlet with the 400ft talus to its right. A bit more than we were looking for with an attempt of Mt. Alice planned in the next day or two. So we turned back without reaching the lake. However, it was a very nice trail with great scenery, even without the lake. And a fairly good workout to boot. We bumped it up from a medium hike to a hard hike, and put it on the list for another day.
Day 9 - Wednesday, July 30th - Beaver Mountain
We started about half an hour later than usual, planning on an easier day. From the Beaver Meadows TH, we hiked around the Beaver Mountain loop of 5 miles. It was a nice hike with some pretty views. This could easily be extended with some bushwhacking to the summit of Beaver Mountain, or to one of the other nearby summits.
Day 10 - Thursday, July 31st - Mt. Alice via the hour glass ridge
We were up half an hour early, for the drive down to Wild Basin TH. We left the TH around 6:00am, and reached Snowbank Lake a little after 9:00am. From there, we hiked up the ridge northwest of the lake up to the saddle between Mt. Alice and Chiefshead. The first part of the hour glass ridge looked a bit narrow for my tastes, so Ali and Sandy continued without me. I quickly decided to bushwhack across the basin from the Lion Lakes area to Thunder Lake. In hindsight, I probably should have just went along as the exposure wasn't really that bad. However, I actually ended up having a great hike that included plenty of route finding through woods and krummholz, down talus slopes, across snow, with a bunch of stream crossings thrown in. I followed that up with lunch at the patrol cabin by Thunder Lake. Meanwhile, Sandy and Ali, descended from Mt. Alice, crossed the tundra, and descended from Boulder Grand Pass to Thunder Lake. They passed me along the short cut camping trail, and finished up about 4:30pm.
Day 11 - Friday, August 1st - West Glacier Knob
Today was another light day, after the long Mt. Alice climb. We hiked out to Loch Vale, and then on the way back, bushwhacked up to the West Glacial Knob. The views from the Knob are very nice, including an excellent view of the S-Gully route up to Thatchtop. After descending, we checked out the log crossing most folks us for the S-Gully route. The log is broken in two, but still passable. Sandy was able to cross both ways, and planned to use any future attempt of that route.
Day 12 - Saturday, August 2nd - Thatchtop via the S-Gully
After pinning down the route to the S-Gully, and testing the Icy Brook crossing, Sandy and Ali were ready to climb Thatchtop via the S-Gully. I decided not to try to keep up on my sore feet, and do whatever came to mind, once on the trail. We all left the Glacier Gorge TH at 5:45am. Sandy and Ali set a quick pace, and reached the summit in 3 hours. Then they descended along Shelf Creek, and back to the TH at noon. I hiked up to the base of the slot that leads to the S-Gully to get some better pictures of the route. Then I headed out to Mills Lake. After a snack, returned to the main trail junction, and took the unimproved Lake Haiyaha trail, visiting its name sake, Dream Lake, and Nymph Lake on the way to Bear Lake. Then I shuttled down to Glacier Gorge TH at 11:00am.
Day 13 - Sunday, August 3rd - Mt Chapin via the north slope
This morning we drove up Old Fall River Road to the Chapin Pass TH, and hiked out to the summit of Mt Chapin. We'd never been on Mt Chapin, even though we'd been in the CCY area a few prior visits to the park. It was a chilly start at the TH, and fairly breezy on the summit. The round trip took about 2 hours. It was a welcome light hike near the end of our stay in Estes Park.
Day 14 - Monday, August 4th - Indian Peaks Wilderness
This was our first trip down to the Indian Peaks Wilderness. Since it was the last day we were looking for maximum scenery without any major rock hopping. So we decided to break the loop through Pawnee Pass into two separate hikes. The drive down took about 65 minutes. We started at the Blue Lake TH a little before 6:30am. When we finished, we drove over to the Lake Isabel TH. That parking area was full, but we were able to park on the closest pull out about a 5 minute walk from the TH. Both hikes were very nice with great scenery. We finished up at 11:00am, and went back to the cabin to relax before packing up for an early departure.
Day 15 - Tuesday, August 5th - On the road home
We were up at 5:00am, and on the road at 5:15am. In Cheyenne, we stopped for another big Perkins breakfast. They were a little slow, so it was an hour before we were back on the road. But we made good time the rest of the way, stopping once for gas in York Nebraska, making it home at 9:45pm.