Rocky Mountain National Park: Chasm Lake

 Noelle and Sierra spent part of this week staying in Estes Park with friends. They bought a week pass to access Rocky Mountain National Park and had one day left of the pass, today. Noelle encouraged me to use the last day of the pass and so I made the drive into Northern Colorado and to the Longs Peak Trailhead. I had just been here a few weeks ago for the hike up to Estes Cone. Today I would attempt the hike up to Chasm Lake.

After leaving home before 5 am, I arrived to find the trailhead parking lot full. I had to park alongside the road. I made the short walk up the road to the Longs Peak Ranger Station, 

and set off on the trail. 

After reaching the trail to Estes Cone, I continued on my trail passing through the Goblin's Forest.

Soon I reached the snow line and the trees alongside the trail were beautiful, covered with sugary frost and snow.

Soon I passed near a stream and noticed that a fair amount of ice had formed along the edges of rocks in the stream. 

I crossed the snow-covered lightning bridge 

and soon headed up above the trees. 

Above tree line the views really opened up. I caught a glimpse of Estes Cone,

and nearly constant views of Longs Peak.

Here progress slowed a bit, as I could feel the effects of altitude. Still, my recent running kick had me feeling stronger on this hike than I've felt in a pretty long time. 

I continued to ascend with views of the peak.

After reaching Chasm Junction the trail levelled off a bit. The views were even more impressive. 

I caught views of Peacock Pool and Columbine Falls.

Then I passed through a meadow and started an icy climb up to Chasm Lake.

I relaxed on a rock near the shore of the lake for a bit before turning around to make my way back to the trailhead. The views on the return were every bit as impressive as they had been on the way in.

While I didn't see a whole lot of wildlife on the hike (probably due to all the people I was sharing the trail with) I did catch a nice view of a raven.

Soon I was back down into the trees and the warm temperatures. With clear skies and temperatures in the 60s, Estes Park was extremely busy. I opted to skip lunch in Estes and headed to Greeley and WeldWerks on the way home for a well earned beer.

Roosevelt National Forest: Granite Ridge East and Box Hollow Trails

 Today I wanted to get out for a hike and see if any fall color remained. I opted to take Rosie out to Red Feather Lakes to hike the longer portions of the Granite Ridge Trail system that I haven't yet hiked. We drove to the Lady Moon Trailhead and set off on our hike.

The hike started with a section of trail that Noelle and I had recently hiked. We passed through a large meadow and then curved through a section of aspens that still held colorful leaves.

Most of the trees we would see were bare though.

We followed the Lady Moon Trail to its junction with the Granite Ridge Trail and turned left. 

We had followed a short portion of this trail before, during a winter hike to Disappointment Falls. However, this time Rosie and I would hike Granite Ridge to its eastern terminus. Along the way we  hiked past interesting rock formations,

and caught some nice views of distant mountains.

They must be getting ready for some prescribed burns, because we hiked past a few hose connections and coiled sections of fire hose.

The scenery to the eastern end of the trail featured lots of rock formations and interesting views.

Land across the eastern boundary featured a disc golf course. We saw a few people walking there as we took our break. Then, we started to retrace our steps to an unsigned trail junction where we turned onto the Box Hollow Trail. 

This trail descended into a valley rimmed with rock formations. 

Here we spied some of the last blooming wildflowers of the season.

We turned around at the forest boundary and started our hike back to the trailhead.

As we approached a section of trail with a dry lakebed, we scared a grouse off the ground an into a tree. 

Medicine Bow National Forest: Skeleton, Devil's Slide, Cow Loop

 Today, Noelle and I wanted to get out to see some fall colors. We decided a drive to Vedauwoo would be our quickest route to immersing ourselves in the splendor of fall. 

After the drive into Wyoming and up Interstate 80, we headed over to the Blair Picnic area for the start of our hike. As we pulled into the picnic grounds, there was a family having their picture taken with a colorful foliage backdrop. We gathered our packs and I took a photo of Noelle with colorful trees behind her.

Then, we hit the trail.

It seemed about half the trees were still clinging to their leaves, 

while the other half were bare.

Our hike made a nice loop following some upland areas through meadows, past rock formations and through scattered stands of aspens. All the trails we followed are unofficial but heavily used. The scenery and the weather were amazing.

After passing Reynolds Hill, the trail followed the creek back towards the Blair Picnic Area. 

There were lots of beaver ponds, dens, and dams.

We never did see and beavers or moose though. Still, the scenery was quite spectacular!

After our very enjoyable hike, we stopped in Cheyenne for lunch at Spice Zone, delicious Indian food.