Rocky Mountain National Park Hiking Page
There's something mind-expanding about hiking with new friends! Maybe mountain trails enable a loftier & grander tone as Thoreau described in Walden. Maybe it's the opportunity to think & ponder longer in the conversation as a function of less & less oxygen. Maybe it's the lack of oxygen, but by the time you get back down off the mountain, there's a deeper friendship.
I had the opportunity to hike with two new friends at the beginning of June, and it's set the tone for a great summer! Steve & I hiked Deer Mountain for the first hike of the year. Getting up to just over 10k feet took us about 2.5 hours. We only got lost once and we both had to stop frequently to breathe in the view. That's another mind-expanding experience: Standing on the side/top of one mountain, gazing at scores of peaks ranging all around the horizon.
Steve & I honed our diagnostic acumen as we observed the various droppings along the trail. Elk & deer drops we were quick to identify, but the large equine processed grass & water globs puzzled us for a while. Our identification was soon justified as a guide & a young couple came down a rather narrow part of the trail. "Just giv'em a little reign here, so they can find their own way." said the guide as Steve & I stepped into the trees. I was damn glad I wasn't on one of those horses. (One of my more poignant notes to self: Never climb on top of a being larger than myself & expect it to do my bidding!)
Steve was vindicated as we got closer and closer to the top by the sighting of snow. He managed to stay out of tromping through snow at this point, unlike a few hours later when he soaked his Nikes in 3 foot snow drifts another 2k feet higher!
Finally we came to the sign that said the peak was just .2 miles away. As we stepped out onto summit, the view was awe inspiring. Mountains loomed around the horizon across a large valley carved by a moraine 10,000 years ago. I've walked through that valley & seen the huge remnants left as geological trinkets on the floor. But being at the top of a mountain and looking down on it, the valley floor smoothes out, glowing a bright young green on a sunny, crisp morning.
The top of Deer Mountain was littered with chipmunks, curious to find the law-breakers who will feed them. Steve called home to celebrate being on top of the world with his sea-level wife. We marveled (& rued a little) at the fact he got a signal at the top of Deer Mountain.
We took our time on the mountain top & made quick work of the descent. Hiking definitely works both the hamstrings & the quads, up & down! Steve couldn't resist the beckoning grass fields and took a couple of them to bypass a switchback. Maybe he just couldn't resist the short cut. I found it rather easy to resist, not liking the traipse down a 20% slope without a hiking staff, but I wasn't about to let the flatlander show me up, so I accompanied him down one particularly beautiful long grass field. I was glad Ranger Glenn wasn't there to chastise us!
Once we got back to the trailhead, we shot another picture for the end of the hike. We were not as fresh & energetic as the picture taken at the start of the hike, but certainly the trail dust couldn't mask the glow of the first hike of the season!
From the base of Deer Mountain, Steve drove up Trail Ridge Road. We stopped before we got to the Alpine Visitor center, got out of the car at a trail head & gaped at the two guys coming up the road, at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, pedaling bicycles and towing small trailers behind them. We were impressed! From this trail head, we walked out across a wide plain & quickly found ourselves post-holing through a 200 yard long snow drift. It didn't slow Steve down and soon he'd climbed to the top of the highest outcropping around. From there he found the brass plaque that maps out all of the peaks visible in the 360 degree view afforded by the height. I could see all he could see, I just chose not to climb up the last 30 feet or so.
We drove down from Estes Park & came back via 75th south to Niwot Road. It's a beautiful rural drive that reminds us that development restrictions really are important!
Something about all that open space allows the mind to absorb much more than it normally does. Steve & I probably compressed 3-4 years of conversation into that hike. Not bad for the first hike of the summer!
