Amy decided that it had been too long since we'd spent time hiking together, so she scheduled a mini-vacation from July 2nd-5th in Colorado. She picked out a hotel called "Tahara Mountain Lodge" in Estes Park, so we flew out this past weekend for a couple of days of R + R and hiking.
We flew on Sunday the 2nd then drove up from Denver to Boulder, had lunch at a place in Boulder, then drove up the rest of the way to Estes Park. Super-busy time for that area right now; it is clear that a ton of people have piled in to enjoy their 4th of July week, but for the most part we were able to maneuver around them without any troubles. View from the lodge (looking north):
Our hiking strategy: get up early, early, early! We were awake by around 5am on Monday, which actually wasn't all that difficult since we are still mostly on east coast time. Sunrise outside our window:
We made it to the park entrance around 6, then to the trailhead parking lot by 6:30. We snagged one of the very last spots (hah!) at the parking lot we had picked out. You can now buy your parking permits on line, which is pretty handy for people who want to attempt the "early bird" strategy.
Starting from the Glacier George trailhead, we headed south on the main trail out to Black Lake, which was about nine miles total. The hike in was nice and cool and very heavily shaded -- we were hiking down at the bottom of a steep valley, so for most of the way in the sun had not managed to get over the ridge. This also had an impact on the trail; for the last quarter of the route there were big sections covered with snow, so we had to to do a bit of scrambling. At this stage in the season the snow is very well packed down, so no need for crampons or snowshoes or anything, but we did have to step carefully. Assorted pix:
Waterfall on the way up:
Partway up, looking south:
This was one of the lakes we passed along the way:
Encountered on the trail: a family of elk. They didn't seem especially scared of human beings, as far as I could tell.
This was one of the snowy sections:
I noticed this while stopped for a drink of water -- a bird's egg. Must have fallen out of someone's nest...
Final approach to Black Lake:
Black lake itself:
Looking north from the lake:
We had "lunch" (sandwiches) at around 9:45am at Black Lake. Spectacular views of Arrowhead and Storm Peak, and a nice waterfall coming down the rock wall to the west side of the lake:
Not too many people encountered on the trail on the way up, but on the way back we certainly ran into plenty of people. In fact it seemed like an entirely different trail altogether (looked very different in the direct overhead sunlight).
Glacier Creek itself is quite lovely, still very active from the snowmelt this time of year, and there were quite a few people who had brought fishing gear along to try their luck.
At around 12 noon when we were most of the way down, Amy and I split up, since I wanted to take a slightly longer route on the way back to the trailhead. I looped up to the west and north to go by Dream Lake and Bear Lake, while Amy stayed on the main trail back. Tiny bit of rain -- we got sprinkled on just for a few minutes.
This is a shot of Lake Halyaha, from my section of the return hike:
Looking back at the Glacier Gorge valley from Lake Halyaha. Starting to rain...
View to the east (you can see the Glacier Gorge parking lot):
I finally made it to the trailhead around 1:15 (Amy unfortunately had to wait around a bit for me). All in all it was a nice day of hiking, and it was a treat to lay around at the lodge for the rest of the afternoon. Dinner in the evening at the Dunraven Inn, which was (alas) not all that great, but we it filled our bellies at least.
For our second day of hiking, we settled on a hike started at the Fern Lake trailhead, headed west along the Big Thompson river, then circled around to the south in a big loop, ending up at Bear Lake. Total distance 9.5 miles, with a substantial elevation gain (around 2500 feet).
The first couple of miles of the hike was fairly flat, following along the river valley. Big Thompson is another very nice river, very active and noisy. Eventually the trail heads south across the river and climbs up to Fern Lake, about another two miles or so. It was unfortunately a bit buggy; we were pursued steadily by mosquitoes pretty much the whole time, and I regretted choosing shorts instead of zip-off pants. Photos from the trail:
Fern Lake:
Fern Lake is quite beautiful, nice views of the surrounding mountains. On the trail around the side I got a nice glimpse of cut-throat trout cruising around in the shallows, looking for trouble. The particular variety they have here is heavily speckled and has strong pink coloration (very striking fish):
Not too many people on the trail on this section. We hiked along with another couple who were in our same demographic (maybe a bit older); it was not hard to tell where they were because your could smell the insect repellent they were wearing :-).
From there is was another fairly steep elevation gain up to Odesssa Lake, wooded at first and then with fantastic views; this was one of the nicest sections of the hike. After that there was a final section up to a pass; here we encountered a couple of big snowfields, including one that was pretty steep and did make me just a wee bit nervous (would have been nice to have extra sticks or pointy things there). From there it was a long, gradual descent down to Bear Lake, maybe a bit over three miles. We saw a fair number of people coming up on that stretch; they were all eager to find out how much snow there was on the trail (especially the ones who were wearing sneakers).
Looking back at Odessa lake:
Snow!
Photo facing south on the final descent to Bear Lake. In the background is Glacier Gorge, the hike we did the previous day.
We arrived at the Bear Lake trailhead around noon, so it was about 6 hours or so on the trail (we didn't actually linger for very long at stopping points on the trail because of the bugs). All in all, it was a very nice hike. Distance wise I think it was a bit more than yesterday, but we spent a bit less time on the trail, which was nice.
To get back to our car we took the shuttle buses that they have running between various campsites and trailheads -- that worked out quite well, since we were able to get on a bus to the Park & Ride right away, and then caught the "Morraine" bus from there almost immediately. Dinner that evening at the Twin Owls Steakhouse (food quite decent, much better than the previous evening).
The next day we did a short pre-breakfast hike at Lily Lake (only a mile or so):
After that we had a nice lazy breakfast at the lodge (some sort of baked potato and egg creation, very tasty), and then spent the rest of the day making our way back home (drive to the Denver airport, then flight back to Boston).
An enjoyable trip... I am grateful to Amy for setting it up.
The first couple of miles of the hike was fairly flat, following along the river valley. Big Thompson is another very nice river, very active and noisy. Eventually the trail heads south across the river and climbs up to Fern Lake, about another two miles or so. It was unfortunately a bit buggy; we were pursued steadily by mosquitoes pretty much the whole time, and I regretted choosing shorts instead of zip-off pants. Photos from the trail:
Fern Lake:
Fern Lake is quite beautiful, nice views of the surrounding mountains. On the trail around the side I got a nice glimpse of cut-throat trout cruising around in the shallows, looking for trouble. The particular variety they have here is heavily speckled and has strong pink coloration (very striking fish):
Not too many people on the trail on this section. We hiked along with another couple who were in our same demographic (maybe a bit older); it was not hard to tell where they were because your could smell the insect repellent they were wearing :-).
From there is was another fairly steep elevation gain up to Odesssa Lake, wooded at first and then with fantastic views; this was one of the nicest sections of the hike. After that there was a final section up to a pass; here we encountered a couple of big snowfields, including one that was pretty steep and did make me just a wee bit nervous (would have been nice to have extra sticks or pointy things there). From there it was a long, gradual descent down to Bear Lake, maybe a bit over three miles. We saw a fair number of people coming up on that stretch; they were all eager to find out how much snow there was on the trail (especially the ones who were wearing sneakers).
Looking back at Odessa lake:
Snow!
Photo facing south on the final descent to Bear Lake. In the background is Glacier Gorge, the hike we did the previous day.
We arrived at the Bear Lake trailhead around noon, so it was about 6 hours or so on the trail (we didn't actually linger for very long at stopping points on the trail because of the bugs). All in all, it was a very nice hike. Distance wise I think it was a bit more than yesterday, but we spent a bit less time on the trail, which was nice.
To get back to our car we took the shuttle buses that they have running between various campsites and trailheads -- that worked out quite well, since we were able to get on a bus to the Park & Ride right away, and then caught the "Morraine" bus from there almost immediately. Dinner that evening at the Twin Owls Steakhouse (food quite decent, much better than the previous evening).
The next day we did a short pre-breakfast hike at Lily Lake (only a mile or so):
After that we had a nice lazy breakfast at the lodge (some sort of baked potato and egg creation, very tasty), and then spent the rest of the day making our way back home (drive to the Denver airport, then flight back to Boston).
An enjoyable trip... I am grateful to Amy for setting it up.
