Monday, August 30, 2010

Rocky Mountain National Park

I don’t know how everyone else who is out of shape handles it… For me, being out of shape is just annoying. My heart and soul is still in “I can do anything” mode. Even if my brain knows the truth. But I can’t help it! I am used to being able to do whatever I want… I think back to high school and running 5 minute miles.




I remember how Mr. Rafferty used to make us do a mile during gym class. I’d run it in 6:30, just cause I could… Most of the class, obviously, was not so gung ho on sports. Many decided to be “rebels” and just walk it, finishing in 15 minutes or so.



So when Megs and I perused the possible trails to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park, this was the memory I fell back on… I neglected to remember that that mile had been on a flat track.



Megs and I slept in, got ourselves together, and left Greeley, CO for the RMNP. We arrived in the town of Estes Park, the gateway to the eastern half of the park, at about 12noon. We stopped there to get the gas and food we would need for the next couple days. But we also stopped there because Estes Park is home to the hotel where Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” was filmed! And we found it, The Stanley, basically right in the middle of town. Not even close to the middle of nowhere way that it was portrayed in the movie…



But enough of civilization, bring me some mountains!



Rocky Mountain National Park is gorgeous. The Rockies are spectacular in their own right. Towering mountains with bald, rocky summits. A blanket of pine forests surrounding them, filled with deer, elk, caribou, and moose. Sadly, one type of pine has been decimated by a virus brought by a beetle that found its way over from China… The eastern half of the park is not hit as bad because it has a wide range of pine species. But the western half of the park was 90% covered by the doomed species… There is an expensive insecticide that they use in high traffic areas, but the only way to kill the beetles is either by fire or extreme cold. Obviously fire isn’t an option. And they just don’t get weeks of below zero temperatures anymore…



But the park itself is awesome. The trails are really well maintained. The campgrounds are $20 but are nice, even though most of their trees have died and been cut down… The roads, overlooks, and trailheads are great, however. And they even have a system of free shuttle buses that will take you from the campgrounds and park & rides, straight to the trailheads! No more hiking 2 or 3 miles before even starting the trail you had planned…



So we arrived at our campsite about 1pm. Had some lunch and decided our course of action for the next few days. Our plan was to hike that afternoon up as far as we could get towards a high mountain valley lake called Sky Pond. It was 4.5 miles up. 9 miles round trip. We’d be able to start hiking at about 2pm and would have to be back down to catch our bus by 7pm. Was that enough time? What was our pace going to be?



In the end we decided we’d just hike as far as we could until it was time for us to turn around. And so we began our first adventure! The first sight along the way was Alberta Falls…






Only about a mile in. Feeling good. Kept going. Started to see some awesome Rockies scenery…







At the 3 mile mark we reached a mountain lake called The Loch…







Pretty awesome already. Doing well on time. Keep going. More views…







See that waterfall there? At about 4 miles, the trail told us to basically climb straight up the side of it!! Grueling after coming so far already, but we made it to the top, and the Lake of Glass…







By now we’d come this far, we had to go on. We still hadn’t quite hit the two and a half hour mark. So a half mile further up to Sky Pond…









So cool. So high up! 11000 or so feet! Probably another 500 or so to the peaks above us. And those are indeed mini glaciers! Such an awesome introduction to the Rockies!!!



Then the long trek back down to the trailhead… After 9 miles of hiking, we arrived at the bus stop four and a half hours after starting. 30 minutes to spare! Not too bad. I guess I’m not in as bad of shape as I thought… But we were exhausted. And another big hiked loomed tomorrow. So we got back to the campsite, had dinner, and passed out.



Tomorrow we take on a mountain!

2 comments:

  1. if you see any bikers, shake their hands and give them ice cream...they deserve it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The pictures are great we can just imagine what it all looks like up close... May be we have to do this trip when we retire. Don't think that we will do all the hiking that you two are doing. Be careful.

    Love,
    The Heppies

    ReplyDelete