Trail Ridge Road high points and 300th named destination!

What to do what to do what to do?  With longer drives and even earlier wake ups needed this summer, my eyes are set firmly on the west side of the park.  I will find a way to get there every week unless the weather looks absolutely horrendous.  I just have to be able to put together a logical grouping of destinations, and try to get the most I can in a single day.

The alarm went off at 2am.  Not just a few years ago I was often just going to bed at 2am, now I'm getting up then.  Times have changed....

I got ready slowly and then left the house around 3.  I planned for the majority of the hike to take place from the Poudre River Trailhead, right across the street from Milner Pass.  But since I was driving by a few things I had yet to do....

I first parked at Lava Cliffs and made the short hike up to the 12355 foot ranked but unofficially named "Trail Ridge".  It was still dark and I was working by headlamp.  During the day I imagine this would offer a great view.  As it was, dawn was just breaking over the horizon.  Please keep on the trail if you venture to this high point.

Back at Lava Cliffs there was just enough light to grab a quick photo before driving farther along Fall River Road to the Alpine Visitor Center.  From here I followed the paved path up to the 12005 foot Fall River Pass Mountain, in this case a unranked and unofficially named high point.  Again, great views abound from here and you can see vast swaths of the park from one place.  But you can't see all of it, which is why this blog exists!
From here I headed directly down towards Marmot Point.  You could also take Old Fall River Road down from the visitor center to access the thin but distinct trail that heads this 11909 foot ranked and named peak. 

Alpine Sunflowers in early morning light.

Looking from Fall River Pass Mountain to Marmot Point.  Note Old Fall River Road wrapping around.  The terrain between the two is fine, steep but solid on Fall River Pass Mountain, and the trail up Marmot Point is easy going. 

Looking back at "Trail Ridge".

Marmot Point and CCY (or YCC L to R) in the background.  This was a spectacular place to be to witness sunrise.  I find these moments so calming and peaceful.

Looking back to Old Fall River Road, Fall River Pass Mountain, and the visitor center.  I descended the trail and hiked/jogged the road back up to the trailhead.  There was now a second car parked there, but no person.  Doing this small loop took me about fifty minutes.  Which meant I was doing great!  Back in the car I drove down to Milner Pass. 

Elk at Poudre Lake.  My goals here were Poudre Lake Spires and Sheep Rock.

Essentially if you have ever hiked from Milner Pass, you have passed Poudre Lake Spires.  I just hadn't stopped to check them out before.  Pretty neat little rock features.  Continue up the trail until the first hard switchback to the left (which has stone steps).  There is a sign on the right asking to stay off the recovery area.  Go a little bit past this and cut off trail right to pick up a well defined trail that heads to Sheep Rock.

A great view over Poudre Lake from Sheep Rock, 10940 feet. 

Back at Milner Pass you can see Sheep Rock- the lump left of center.  I got in the car one last time for a short jaunt back the way I'd come to the Poudre River TH.  In reality, this is just a small area of the road with parking for a few cars on each side, not an actual trailhead.  You could also walk over from Milner Pass.
I started down the trail.  A few things I noticed right away:
1.  On the map it looks like the trail stays in the basin and follows the river down in a gentle decline.  This is not entirely true, as it stays uphill from the river, often cutting into the forest.  This means there are some short and steep uphills even as you go downhill.
2.  I was trying to not step in water or mud to keep my feet dry, but this soon proved futile as the grass overhanging the trail was wet, and there was alot of runoff from Specimen Mountain.
3.  This means there were large and unavoidable areas of mud -the thick and sticky kind that your foot sinks into ankle deep and then almost pulls your shoe off when you pull up to take the next step.
4.  This, due to a lack of travel to clean it up, means the trail is not very well defined in places.  There were multiple times it just disappeared into knee high marshy grass for hundreds of yards at a time.  Of course, you know the way you are generally going, so it wasn't hard to refind it on the other side of these areas.
5.  There are a TON of Elk in this area.  As such, there is a ton of Elk poo, urine, and marking scent.  Things were quite aromatic!
6.  Obviously running this 'trail', or even hiking it in the traditional sense of the word, was going to be out. 

But it is a place of great natural beauty.  And if you want to see (and smell) a bunch of animals, this would be a good place to look.
I knew I would have to cut off the trail eventually to get to the first highpoint, the 10855 foot Nutcracker Peak.  This is another peak that is ranked but unofficially named.  Hence, it was not included in Fosters book.
I definitely left the trail too early, but I was getting sick of the condition of the Poudre River Trail.  Hiking it was not fun, which is disappointing.  The area has alot to offer, but the trail definitely needs some work to improve it.  I found the animal trails running up the slope to be in much better shape and very well defined.
But of course I left the trail too early, did some unnecessary elevation gain, and had to traverse over to the peak.  Eventually I found myself on a high point that looked like the summit, but I couldn't find a cairn.  The trees were so thick I couldn't see through them.  My gps told me I was about 100 feet too low.  I spent some time looking around before it occurred to me that I was likely on the small high point west of Nutcracker Peak, which was in the 10700's.  I headed east and hit a small clearing and was able to see a heavily forested slope ahead of me.  Right on.

A little map for you.
The bushwhacking was steady but not too intense.  It was mostly downfall, with the vegetation in the area growing pretty close to the ground.
But even as I went on and got closer to the summit I was making a huge mistake this day.  I kept telling myself I'd stop and eat when I got to the summit, thinking it would only take me two hours or so.  Then it started taking longer but I was sure I was close.  Then I realized I wasn't.  Then there were so many mosquitoes I put my rain jacket on because they can't bite me through that, and I didn't want to stop and eat.
Long story short, I ended up not eating anything for the first five hours of this hike.  Not good.  Of course by the time you really think it out and know what this means, it is too late.    

I finally made it to the summit of Nutcracker Peak.  It took me almost twice as long as planned.  This was my 300th named destination in RMNP.  I should have felt joy.  I felt hunger.  Actually, I was beyond hunger and starting to feel tired and hopeless.  I ate heavily, swatting away mosquitoes, and considered just going back.  But I convinced myself to go on.  I'd have to come all the way back here to climb Confluence Peak if not.  The weather looked ok but not great, but I'd be below treeline for the rest of the day.
I convinced myself to continue on.  I could just see Confluence Peak through the trees and used my GPS and compass to take a bearing on it.  I was not going to miss it.  The forest was heavily treed and you could not see much more than occasional glimpses of the surrounding peaks through it to tell where you were.
The food I ate kicked in for the time being and I actually felt fairly good as I hit the small creek between the two peaks and started to regain altitude.  Again I faced some bushwhacking, but again it was mostly in the deadfall category. 

The mosquitoes were still with me as I hit the summit of Confluence Peak at 11220 feet.  Crazy enough, but I am now nearly done the Mummy Range.  I think with one more day I'll be able to finish the peaks, and with another day the lakes.
The difficulty in getting to this peak and the fact that it offers little in the way of views means it is not climbed often.  According to the register, it saw zero summits in 2014, and only one in 2013.  But the register is a wealth of who's who in Colorado Mountaineering, bearing the signatures of such luminaries as Gerry and Jennifer Roach, John and Alyson Kirk (before they were married and signed with her maiden name which I can't remember), and Steve Knapp.  I feel so honored to add my name to a list bearing these names!
These two peaks are probably only climbed by those trying to finish lists- ranked peaks in RMNP, Larimer County, etc. as many of the signatures bore some sort of information along those lines.  I added my name and where I was on my list.  301!
I descended back toward the small creek and cut east to hit the trail again.  When I reached it, I was finally able to take my rain jacket off and move quickly enough to avoid the mosquitoes. 

The trail here was in very good shape and I was able to move fairly quickly for the first time.  Though it is definitely a longer drive for me, but maybe not for you, hiking these peaks from Corral Creek or Longdraw would likely be a good bit easier.
Going back was gently uphill.  I passed the split with the Chapin Pass Trail.  Again, I was astounded at the natural beauty of the area.  It is truly remarkable.  Now that Old Fall River Road has reopened after the 2013 flood, this might be a fun option to access the area.  Of course, I have no idea what the trail conditions there might look like, but I can't imagine it could be worse than the Poudre River Trail.

I found this.  I have never seen antlers out and about.  Pretty cool.  Maybe 3.5 feet tip to tip? 

Magnificent!
After the split with the Chapin Pass Trail, the conditions largely returned to what I saw earlier in the morning.  Which is to say bad.  Mud, water, marshy grass, no trail in places...  Not fun.
I was wondering if I'd see some afternoon Elk, and finally spied a what looked like a large brown one with rounder ears.  I kept an eye and made some noise and yelled at it and the next time I looked for it, it was gone.
Shortly after I saw another Elk.  A huge brown one, who turned to look at me.  It was no Elk.  "Holy sh!t, that's a Moose!"  A juvenile male, it was a hundred yards or so from me and I made some more noise as it watched me.  I was happy that I was scary enough to convince it to move away from me, and I kept an eye on it until it moved into the forest on the other side of the valley.

But it now became a game.  Though I'd tried to make up for it, I didn't eat for too long at the beginning of the day.  My mental condition continued to degrade despite what I ate, and I felt like I was going slower and slower.  I wanted to finish the day strong, but that was out of the question.  I'd have to settle for just finishing.

I started to feel nausea and stopped eating anything.  I stopped to reapply sunblock and decided to consume some Olive Oil.  I love it drizzled on bread or pasta or pretty much anything, but it is gross to straight up drink.  However, the 1.5 oz that I always carry with me contains nearly 400 calories.  Down it went chased with some water.
But I was collapsing.  I felt slower and slower, wondered when I'd pass the point that I left the trail in the morning (I finally recognized a tree stump), wondered when I'd see the trailhead.  Every little hill I went up was a fight and I was taking more frequent breaks.  I would get tears in my eyes each time I ascended these hills, hoping to see the trailhead on the other side, and then feel disappointed when I didn't.  I eventually told myself I couldn't look because I just couldn't take it anymore.  I'd only look down at the trail or sideways but not ahead.  I finally pulled all the apricots out of my trail mix and ate them alone.  The fruit sugar tasted good.
Eventually I hit a few water crossings that I remembered from the morning.  These were close to the car, right?  Then I could finally hear cars through the forest on the other side of the valley.  Trail Ridge Road was getting close to me, thus I was getting close to it.  I thought about crossing the river and getting to the road and hitching a ride back.  But I couldn't let myself do that, and it would take more energy.  I was counting my steps and trying not to cry.
And then I finally crested the last hill.  Despite telling myself not to look, I did.  I cannot describe the absolute joy I felt when I saw my 2003 Ford Focus with 152000 miles and a dent on the right rear panel.  Tears streamed down my cheeks, but I quickly pulled it together and made my way to the car, stopping to rinse my mud soaked shoes off in the river. 

This is what things looked like when I got back to the car.  So if you do plan to hike this trail, be prepared to get wet and dirty.
I took a few minutes to change into clean clothes and decompress.  I was feeling whole again and had a snack in the car.  The drive back took me about half an hour longer, most of which was in RMNP.  Lots of traffic there.
This was an interesting day, and my first real summer hike of 2015.  I started out feeling great and ready to go.  I ended up feeling like I had pushed myself to the absolute limit of what I could do and even beyond that.  The mental anguish is intense, and often imagined.  Which is to say upon arriving home and looking at my gps track, I was going almost exactly the same speed coming back up the trail as I was going down.  I just felt like I was absolutely destroyed and going slow.  I even managed to jog some of the flat sections on the way back.
I've written about my unpleasant experience to serve both as a lesson to you, and as a reminder to me.  You simply can't make up for hours of not eating.  I find for myself it is essential to eat at least once per hour when engaging in any activity that goes for much over 2.5 hours.  When I got home I discovered that I'd only eaten four Clif Kit's bars all day, which equals 760 calories (76 cal/hr).  If I'd eaten once per hour, I should have taken in 1900 calories over the day, solely in bar form.  Add trail mix to this plus breakfast plus a snack when back at the car and 3000 calories while hiking for ten hours (300 cal/hr) doesn't seem out of the question. 
In short, burning alot of energy requires alot of fuel.
The high points along trail ridge road should be accessible to mostly anyone.  If you are older or younger or coming from sea level, yes it might take you some time.  And as I have said above, the Poudre River valley is a place of great and raw natural beauty.  Expect to see and smell animals galore seasonally.  But the trail absolutely sucks and falls firmly into the "slog" category.  I could tell it doesn't get much usage, so the motivation for the NPS to fix it up is probably low.  But at the same time, I wonder if it would get more traffic if it were in better shape, as there is no real trailhead, and the trail doesn't really go anywhere...  Hard to say.
Trail Ridge Road High Points and Poudre River Peaks:
Trail Ridge, 12355 feet: .4 miles each way (Lava Cliffs parking), 280 foot gain.  Easy.
Fall River Pass Mountain, 12005 feet: .3 miles each way (Alpine Visitor Center Parking), 200 foot gain.  Easy-.
Marmot Point, 11909 feet: 1 mile each way (from Alpine Visitor Center), 360 foot gain.  Easy +.  Note you'll have around 260 feet of gain to get back to the Alpine Visitor Center.
Poudre Lake Spires, 10800 feet: .1 mile each way, 42 foot gain.  Easy-.
Sheep Rock, 10940 feet: .5 miles each way, 182 foot gain.  Second class.  Easy.  Note there is also a Sheep Mountain and a Sheep Mountain Rock within RMNP, which are both on the east side.
Nutcracker Peak, 10855 feet: 5.3 miles each way, 1350 foot gain.  Second class.  Moderate+.
Confluence Peak, 11220 feet: 7.5 miles each way, 2358 foot gain.  Second class.  Strenuous-.
As a whole, the latter part of this hike covered around 15 miles with 3236 feet of elevation gain.  Strenuous-.  

Powell Peak via Andrews Glacier.

I have had some great days outdoors this week.  Monday I got up to some higher altitudes for some fun mountain biking.  I found myself ripping downhill on ten inch wide single track through a meadow of wildflowers and wondered if life could get any better.  Well, I had to head to work after that, so no!  But it is those moments of perfection that I seek, where everything comes together even if only for a second.

I didn't sleep much that night since I had to close.  Bleary eyed to answer the 4:15 alarm, I slathered on sunscreen, put in my contacts, made some food, and started the drive up to Estes Park.  A few thoughts for the day had run through my head.  There are a few snow climbs I would like to accomplish this year.  But the look at the mountains from my highpoint on Monday told me it might still be too early for these.  So what to do?  

I started from the Glacier Gorge trail head at 6:15.  I took the Fire Trail both ways.  Alberta Falls is nice and all, but I've now seen it multiple times in every season.  

Working up to The Loch.  In the winter, you can just stay down in the valley.

The Loch was quite pretty, just as always.  I happened to make it up early enough on a low wind day and got a few nice reflective photos.  Directly ahead you can see the flat face of the peninsula of land that juts out from the Continental Divide and holds The Sharkstooth amongst other features.  To the left, find Sky Pond, and to the right you can see the top of Andrews Glacier.
Since I'd never been up here before, I somehow ended up staying on the mashed into the snow trail a little bit longer than I should.  The crampons were put on and I faced what would be the steepest snow climb of the day as I made my way uphill and into the basin holding Andrews Creek.

You can see some footprints here, and I could see footprints in places for most of the day.  Simply head up to reach Andrews Tarn.  I was feeling a little bit better heading up than I was last week.  Hopefully some of that fitness is coming back to me.  

I found the snow slope lying below Andrews Tarn to be steeper than the glacier itself, maybe 30+ degrees.  I stopped to take a picture of The Sharkstooth.  It looks pretty awesome sticking up by itself there.  Note the sliver of moon in the upper right corner.

I stopped at the tarn and had a snack.  There had been a little bit of slide activity on both sides of the glacier and I could see the footprints went around it.  Like always, it looked steeper and more imposing than it really was.  I felt I could have gone up in microspikes, but of course, better to be safe than sorry!
Contrary to earlier, I felt like I was dragging up the glacier.  The late turn cost me some time and energy.  All I could do was go at my pace.  In the end, I topped out the glacier about three hours and fifteen minutes after I left the car.

Taylor Peak loomed large.  All I could do was think about the last time I was here and how bad I felt then.  I started up, keeping the crampons on for the time being.  

Looking back at how much snow there is.  Fortunately, it is melting and consolidating, and largely held my body weight.  Postholing could have turned this day into a real slog.  The weather was great, with a nice cool wind blowing to offset my uphill energy.  I wore a tshirt the entire day.

I felt alot better ascending Taylor.  It is a little less than a mile from Andrews Pass and around 1200 feet of gain.  It offers some great views of Longs Peak.

Powell Peak still looked very far away.  I couldn't remember how far, or how much loss and gain would be needed to get there.  If I stayed close to the edge of the divide, I could stay on snow most of the way and minimize the elevation loss.  I started descending on talus and took off my crampons soon enough.  The traction simply was not needed on the snow and they were more of a hassle than an asset on the rock.

Taylor Glacier, Glass Lake.

I felt as though I was moving well, though again I was not going very quickly.  But I could finally see the summit of Powell Peak, with McHenrys and Longs in the background.  At some point during the hike, I realized that this could be my last ranked 13er in the park.  I ran through a mental list and found that it was indeed, with a few unranked points above 13k left to go, such as SE Longs and Glacier Ridge.

From what I could see from the summit, McHenrys Notch looked difficult but reasonable.  Once out of the notch, it looks like some easier terrain awaits to the summit, before entering some third class on the descent on the other side.  

Snow everywhere.  The Rabbit Hole Couloir of Mount Alice had been a thought for this week.  Maybe in another week or two, as there is still alot of snow up there.
I had a snack on the summit and planned to lounge around for a little bit.  That turned into a get packed and get going quickly when I heard thunder.  None of the clouds I could see looked threatening, but better to be on the safe side and head back.

I stopped at Andrews Pass for a snack and to trade the hiking poles for an ice axe.  I thought I heard voices, and looked up to Otis Peak, where I saw two people descending toward the pass.  We met up and talked.  It is always nice to run into people out there in what is essentially the middle of nowhere.  We shared some stories and took a few photos and were then on our way.  The descent was quick- I ran down and attempted to slide once, but the top layer of snow was so soft I could not get going.  Back at the tarn I looked up...

I thought these photos would turn out well, but this might be the single best series I have ever taken in the mountains.  Click to zoom in and find the two black dots on the upper left side of the glacier.  These are the two people I met descending.  

Seen here in close up.  

A pretty wonderful place to be!
I was able to glissade the slope below the tarn, and felt like I created a minor slide of my own as the top layer of snow was pretty slushy.  I stayed down in the basin and followed the footsteps down to get back to the trail in the right place.  As it turned out, the turn off wasn't obvious, but I still feel I shouldn't have missed it.  Ah well.

Back at The Loch I had a snack and reveled in another windless photo opportunity.  I started to see some people around The Loch, and passed a few on my way back down.  On the Fire Trail yet again, I enjoyed the quiet and solitude of the forest and thought about life for awhile.  Back on the official trail, I saw a few more people but avoided my favorite question- "How far?"
The trailside philosopher in me always wants to reply to that question by asking, "Does it matter?", but I usually give some time or distance guess, or the vague, "You're getting there", or something of that sort.
I got back to the car at precisely 3:36, giving me nine hours and twenty one minutes to do this hike.  I loved every second of it.  Despite only sleeping four and a half hours the night before, I felt rather chipper.  'If only I had my running shoes,' I thought.  'And more water.'  'And a big plate of food.'
The drive back home was uneventful and punctuated with a trip to the grocery store.  Not five hours before I had been lounging in sunshine at 13208 feet.  Life was perfect for a few hours.
All in, this is not a very technically difficult hike.  Andrews Glacier is pretty mellow in grade, though it should be noted it can still form crevasses, and as it terminates into frigid water, a uncontrolled slide down could result in a potentially life threatening situation.  Thus I would recommend the usage of an ice axe or hiking poles as an aid to control the speed of your descent.  Taylor and Powell are no more than second class on grass and scree in the summer months, or some combination of those and snow in winter.
Powell Peak is named for John Wesley Powell, an early explorer of the west.
Link to hike map on Caltopo.
Powell Peak via Andrews Glacier (all distances measured using the Fire Trail, add about a mile if not):
The Loch, 10190 feet: 1.7 miles each way, 1040 foot elevation gain.  Moderate.
Andrews Tarn, 11390 feet: 3.3 miles each way, 2150 foot gain.  Moderate+.
Andrews Glacier, 11650 feet (approximately the middle): 3.6 miles one way, 2410 foot gain.  Moderate+
Andrews Pass, 11980 feet: 3.8 miles one way, 2740 foot gain.  Moderate+.
Taylor Peak, 13153 feet: 4.7 miles one way, 3913 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Powell Peak, 13208 feet: 6.1 miles one way, 3968 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
As a whole, this hike covered approximately 12 miles with 4800 feet of gross elevation gain.  Strenuous. 

Mummy Mountain via Lawn Lake Th.

I read somewhere it rained 28/31 days in May, which means the mountains got a lot of late season snow.  Last year I did this hike to get to Hagues Peak.  This year I repeated it just to get out, gain some elevation, and work hard.  A training hike of sorts.  Since I have been to Mummy several times, I won't cover the trip in detail, but just wanted to give some general conditions photos for the area.  Of note, I was there May 28, 2014, so all links that go to last year were photos taken on that day.  For reference, these photos were taken on June 2, 2015.

Near the trail head at dawn.

Intermittent snow was first encountered around the intersection for Cutbank campsite, which is about 3 miles in.  This became more continuous as elevation increased, but at times was minimal due to exposure.  Starting early meant it was still pretty solid and able to support body weight.  It was definitely softer and more likely to post hole on the way back.

Mummy from the trail.  I could already see there was a lot more snow than last year.

Nearing the base of Mummy Mountain.

Looking up into the bowl of Lawn Lake and Crystal Lakes, surrounded by three 13ers (last year).

Mummys east ridge.  The snow and general fatigue made travel slow (last year showing much less).

Longs Peak and friends.  

Tiny alpine wildflowers.

Nearing the summit of Mummy Mountain (last year).

The summit cairn.  I was not able to find the register, even with digging out the snow a bit (last year).

 

Looking toward Hagues.  I was thinking of adding this on, but decided to turn back due to the large amount of snow and my general slowness up to this point (on this ridge last year).

Ypsilon and some huge cornices.

Leaving the summit.  

Back up into the bowl.  Crazy to see how much more snow there is this year.

Longs and friends behind Mount Tileston and Bighorn Mountain (similar view last year).

Fairchild and snow (last year).
Due to all the rain, the Colorado landscape is green and lush, and we still have all this snow yet to melt.  After some intense storms this week, it looks like some nicer weather is ahead.  Hopefully the sun will help to melt out this snow.  I am already counting down how many possible weeks I have to get out, how many days that equals, and what I have to get done.  I am looking forward to the season, and know already it is going to be a big year.  Most of what I have left to do is on the west side of the park, which means longer drives and longer days.  But I am looking forward to seeing some places in the park that are rarely visited.  I hope to meet you out there.  Thank you as always for reading.
Mummy Mountain, 13,425 feet, SE Ridge via Lawn Lake Th:
7.2 miles one way, 4885 foot gain.  Second class.  Strenuous.