Chiefs Head Peak via Sandbeach Lake.

Just a week before Dan and I hiked to the high lakes of Glacier Gorge.  Earlier in the year we had talked about doing Chiefs Head Peak, but wanted to wait until later in the year since it seemed doable in winter conditions without worry of avalanche.  The hike and views we got were incredible, and since it did snow the day after, we decided Chiefs Head was a go!
We met up in Lyons and made the drive up relatively quickly.  We started out just as the sun was coming up from the Sandbeach Lake Trail Head.  I of course forgot to bring my headlamp, but no worries.  Our eyes adjusted to the darkness quickly and the growing light of the day helped alot.

St. Vrain drainage from the trail.
There was just a few spotty places of snow until summiting the moraine, typical of my experience with this trail in cooler months.  After that it was packed snow/ice.  Dan put on microspikes.  I only brought full on crampons and didn't feel those were needed, but something would have been nice. 

Snow, snow, snow.  I'd say the vast majority of the trees are of the evergreen variety, yet the forest still looks alot more barren and desolate in the winter.

Hunters Creek.  Follow up to get to Dragons Egg Rock and other fun points such as Keplinger Lake.

Looking down Hunters Creek.  Iced over.

Sandbeach Lake is 4.2 miles in and a great hike to do anytime of year.  Since it popular, I would say at most in the winter you'd need traction devices of some sort.  Of course, if fresh snow has fallen, snowshoes would be appropriate.  Copeland Mountain in the background.

Krumholtz on the shores, cool looking clouds.
From Sandbeach Lake, turn right and head up the slope.  There is an unofficial trail which is alot easier to find in the summer, but Mount Orton is the next point of interest you'll come to, and it is relatively easy to get to it.  I would suggest staying more to the north than you think. 

Mount Meeker as seen from somewhere on Mount Ortons slopes.  Around the place where this picture was taken, we found some cairns and followed them up.  I would suggest ascending the rocky slope, and then heading around to the north.  This can largely keep you out of the trees and help you to avoid some unnecessary bushwhacking.

Pagoda Mountain, Longs Peak, and Mount Meeker seen from the ascent of Mount Orton.

Points north in Wild Basin. 

East to the plains.

Dan hadn't gotten to Mount Orton, which is less of a mountain and more of a high point on the ridge.

Looking up North Ridge to Chiefs Head.  The tundra is great hiking here- exceptionally smooth and easy going.

Giants of RMNP- Pagoda is seventh highest in the park, Longs first as well as the northern most 14er in Colorado, Meeker is the second.  Our goal for the day is the third highest peak in RMNP.

Longs Peak from the south.  The lake at the base (which truly lies almost directly south of Pagoda Mountain) is Keplinger Lake.  I would say this stands in my mind as one of the most secluded and beautiful lakes in the park.  A very worthy destination, but all approaches require at least 2.5+ miles of off trail hiking and bushwhacking.

Looking back at Mt. Orton (11724 ft.) from North Ridge. 

Snow sculpted by wind, the high peaks of Wild Basin just poking up.

Getting closer...

I don't think I have seen Ptarmigan in their winter colors as of yet.  If it were a bit snowier, we might not have seen them at all.

The bowl formed by Tanima Peak and Mount Alice.
Here comes the pain.  After a mile or more of relatively flat tundra the next mile gains around 1700 feet.  However, there is nothing more than second class ahead.

Nearing the top, looking down to Glacier Gorge.  Green Lake in the foreground with Blue Lake and Mills Lake seen farther back.  Hard to believe it was only a week ago that we were down there.

And again.

Looking east to Pagoda Mountain, Keyboard of the Winds, Longs Peak, and Mount Meeker.

A little closer up.

South to Wild Basin and beyond.

Some of the high peaks of Wild Basin.

A dizzying look down at the Spearhead and Green Lake.

Looking north into Glacier Gorge and Mummy Range.

A closer look at Jewel and Mills Lakes, both now showing ice.

And away..

On the summit, 13579 feet.

There is a rock near the summit that you can sit on and hang your feet down over lots of air.  Frozen Lake now living up to its name.

Glacier Gorge.

Points east from the true summit.

Clouds forever.

The summit register had been wetted and was frozen.  It will remain untouched by us for the time being.

The wind blown snow was making these awesome looking formations on rocks at the summit.  Reminds me of the little kid experiment of sitting Dolomite in vinegar and watching crystals grow from it...

Dan on the summit.
It was a bit windy, with blobs of snow being blow up at us from Glacier Gorge.  We decided to start to descend and try to find a place with a wind block to have a snack.

Mount Alice, at 13310 feet, is one of the most memorable peaks I have climbed in Wild Basin.

North Ridge on the way back.

Lion Lake #1.

Lion Lake #2 and Snowbank Lake.

On the way back we skirted to the north of Mt. Orton and kept in meadows and grass as we descended past tree line.

A panorama.

L to R- Chiefs Head Peak, 13579 feet, 3rd highest in the park.  Pagoda Mountain 13497 feet, 7th highest.  Longs Peak 14255 feet, highest.  Mount Meeker 13911 feet, 2nd highest.

Back at Sandbeach Lake.  We took a break to eat and shed some clothes as the day was now quite warm.  This also marks the spot where we saw the first and only other group we would see this day. 

Another fun day in the park come to an end..  Well, there's still the 4.2 miles back to the parking lot.
By now the trail had melted out pretty well, making the journey back quite slushy and wet.  We got back to the car just a few minutes after five, giving us a ten hour day.  Not bad.
Chiefs Head Peak was a ton of fun!  This is something that had been on my list, and I was disappointed to not be able to get to it earlier, but happy to have crossed it off now.  Dan said Chiefs Head is also the highest gain hike in the park when done by its standard route.  Certainly a fun and worthy destination to check out this winter or next summer.
Chiefs Head Peak via Sandbeach Lake:
Chiefs Head Peak, 13579 feet: 7.9 miles one way, 5239 foot gain..  Second class.  Strenuous.
Other fun destinations along the way:
Sandbeach Lake, 10283 feet :  4.2 miles one way, 1943 foot gain.  Moderate-.
Mount Orton, 11724 feet: 5.7 miles one way, 3384 foot gain. Moderate+.

Dragons Egg Rock via Hunters Creek

The past week brought me some fun and some misfortune.  It all started on Friday.  The subject of my wine study group was Burgundy this week, one of my favorite regions.  I brought along a 1995 Dominique Laurent Vosne-Romanee 1er Les Suchots.  Amazing stuff.
After this I wanted to go mountain biking before heading back down to work.  I started at Heil Ranch on the Wapati trail, planning to ride up it to Ponderosa, take a right there to Wild Turkey, take a left on Picture Rock, turn around at the bottom, and return.  All was going according to plan until I my front wheel washed out going down Picture Rock and I crashed hard.
I landed on my right side, abrading my elbow pretty good.  I thought I hurt my leg also, but the main worry was my head.  It was one of those crashes where you feel your head snap against the ground, and my ears were ringing loudly.  My helmet looked ok, in fact I cannot see any impact on it, but I know it is time to replace it.  I had to sit for about fifteen minutes for the ringing and nausea to go away.  Not fun.  Then, when I got up, my leg hurt so much I thought I might have broken it.
I sat back down and assessed the situation: It was four plus miles down Picture Rock, plus probably 6-8 more on the road to get back to the car, or I could just turn around and take it really easy and ride back.  I could stand and put some weight on my leg and since I had fallen like this before and felt a similar but less intense pain, I felt like it was ok to proceed.  So back up and then down I went.
I was majorly sore the next day, but felt progressively better on Sunday and Monday.  So I decided to go for it.
I tried to get to Dragons Egg Rock last year, on a very long day that took me to Keplinger Lake.  I went east from the lake and made my way to the massive south facing flank of Mount Meeker.  I headed around, but I had two problems.
The first was that navigating the drainage between Keplinger and Meeker took me a tremendous amount of time.  The second was that I wasn't even sure where Dragons Egg Rock was or what it looked like.  The book said it is defined as a single closed topo loop on the south side of Meeker, but this was right where the page joined another and I couldn't tell what to look for in the crack of the book.
Later I looked it up at home, and while I could find very little information about it (like a picture- see below for one), I could see on a better topo where I should have been.  I didn't get to it, but I did get pretty close- I would guess I was less than half a mile from it.
I started out at 808am on April 10th from the Sandbeach Lake trail head.  My research into possible ways to do this hike led me to two different routes.  In the end, it made more sense to me to stay on this trail until I hit Hunters Creek and then follow it up.

Hello dear deer.
The trail was completely dry and in great shape up until the summit of the moraine.  From here until Campers Creek I hit intermittent snow.

Snow on the trail.
It was pretty well packed and completely walkable in hiking boots only.  From Campers to Hunters it was consistent packed snow.  Again, I did not use any traction devices here, and the trail was quite easy to follow.

Stopped at Hunters Creek for a snack.
I strapped on my snowshoes here and started to follow Hunters Creek up.  Stay on the east side of the creek, and if you do happen to do this once the snow has all melted, there is an unofficial trail here that follows the creek up.
Here the going got difficult as the ground gets somewhat steeper and the snow was not packed at all.  I kept looking north to try to determine where I was in relation to Mount Meeker.  For a long time all I could see was trees on a steep hill side above me.  I continued on until things started to look like this...

The first signs of Meeker and the first sight of my goal of the day.
Once I could see Dragons Egg Rock, I basically struck a path toward it.  I would intersect with the couloir near the bottom and follow it up.  In retrospect, I don't think this was quite the right way to go, though in one area where the snow had melted completely I did find what looked like a trail.  There were some steep hills in worsening snow conditions, and I feel like I should have stayed along Hunters for a little longer before heading north.  But live and learn.

The south face of Meeker, close up on Dragons Egg Rock.
I was noticing my lack of conditioning so far this year, along with some pain from my hip post crash.  Along with mushy snow, my pace slowed to a crawl.

Looking down into Hunters Creek drainage from the south face of Meeker.

Are we there yet?

Closer still, and the cliff face right in the middle is Dragons Egg Rock.  There is significantly less snow than last year.

Taken in June 2011 (I think), quite a difference.

A pretty neat thing to take in is how large Meeker really is.  Once you reach the base, it literally takes up the entirety of the view to the north.

Looking south with Copeland Mountain and Mount Orton visible.

 

I was expecting the couloir to be full of snow and to be able to glissade down.  No such luck, though I guess it did make the ascent easier.  Here I stayed on the tundra to the right of the snow.  When I got close to the cliff face, I carefully crossed the snow and then made my way west along it.  I turned North and summitted the feature from the north side.  This is where you will find the only second class on this hike.  

I feel it would be entirely possible to ascend by continuing on the east side of the feature, but this would give you some talus to work through and this is where there was still heavy and steep snow that I descended through.

Sandbeach Lake from way above.  Still looks pretty frozen, but should be melting quickly.

Indian Peaks Wilderness and points south from Dragons Egg Rock.

Looking into the heart of Wild Basin- Mount Copeland, Ouzel Peak, Mahana Peak, Isolation Peak.  Frankly, this view made the entire hike worthwhile. 

Yours truly on Dragons Egg Rock at 12200ish feet.

 

Continuing up the couloir could be a fun but lengthy way to ascend Meeker.

 

Panorama looking south.  What a view!

Despite the general lack of snow, I did try to glissade, and it worked kind of in places.  But eventually I decided it was taking too much effort and not worth it, so I moved back to the tundra and continued down.  

I mention that on the way up I felt as though I didn't take the best route.  On the way down I stayed in the couloir the whole way.  I think this was better- the rise seemed like it would be more gradual, and there was less snow and bushwhacking to contend with.  If you do this hike, I would advise to stay along Hunters Creek until the view north looks something like this..

 

You will come to a more open area that looks like this.  From here, head on up.

 

Here is what it looks like a little bit higher up.  Much more manageable terrain.

 

Dragons Egg Rock.

Once I got near Hunters Creek, I was hitting enough snow to put my snowshoes back on.  Now it was afternoon, and the snow conditions had gotten worse.  I was constantly post holing, and slogging through melted snow was not fun.  But eventually I did make it back to the Sandbeach Lake trail.  

I took off the snowshoes here.  The trail was about a foot of hard packed snow in the middle, but when I happened to veer off that, even by a few inches... post hole.  Well, it was not bad enough for me to put snowshoes back on, and my hip was feeling a little better not wearing them, so I continued on. 

I saw this newly broken tree right next to the trail.  It looked pretty neat.

This tree is on the Sandbeach Lake trail pretty close the the trail head.  It looks like it should be in front of a haunted house or something.  

I finally made it back to the car after a long day at 707pm, giving me eleven hours for the day.  I think with improved conditions in the summer and self, I would be able to knock a few hours off this time.

This is a pretty fun and challenging hike, with a great view at the destination.  I think it would be easier to do once all the snow melts out.  

This feature was named by RMNP ranger Jack Moomaw (for whom Moomaw Glacier was named) in 1921.  Why Dragons Egg Rock?  I guess we will never know.

Dragons Egg Rock via Hunters Creek:

5.5 miles one way, 3860ish foot gain.  Strenuous+ due to elevation gain and snow particularly after leaving Sandbeach Lake trail. Summer conditions would take this down to strenuous or strenuous-, but there is still significant gain in the last 2.something miles.