A Windy Day in RMNP

I am fortunate enough to live within an hour or so of Rocky Mountain National Park. I will readily admit that, though one of my favorite runs ever was a 15-mile monster in the park, I have not taken full advantage of this proximity. Recently, however, my girlfriend and I discovered that heading up to Estes Park, at the RMNP gateway, is a good way to relax on a Sunday afternoon. Last time we did so, we went into the park proper, and I took the opportunity to buy a year-long pass (which happens to be exactly twice the cost of a single day pass). We did not do much of a hike that day, and I actually completely forgot to take pictures.

Two weeks later, though, I got the opportunity to go up again with a friend and take a decent little hike. It had been snowing and windy much of the week, and the weather kept forcing us to postpone our trip. Even when we did finally make it up there, it was windy enough to be somewhat concerning. Nevertheless, we got a hike in, and some beautiful scenery in the bargain.

We didn't even get up to the trailhead until about 3PM, much later than I would usually choose. The advantage of arriving that late was the light.

My friend M, with whom I was hiking, thought the rock formations in this picture looked like giant "Rock Organ." Whatever it looks like, it was quite pretty.

We never got quite up to the lake we wanted to hit, off the Bear Lake trailhead, since it was snowy and icy the whole way up, but we did hit a nice lake on the way up. One of my favorite images of the trail, however, was a giant, striated boulder that seemed almost too big to be believed.



I particularly liked the icicles hanging off it. I realized at this point that there was good reason so many people come up to boulder around this area in the summer. For a size comparison, at 6 feet, I might make it up to the first snow-covered ledge.

The light just got better and better as it got later. I got my best pictures on the way down.

On the final stretch of the trail on the way back down to the car, we had a bit of a shock. During the hike up, I had mentioned how at least once last year I read a news story about a hiker in the park getting killed by a falling tree during a particularly windy day. In addition, there were signs mentioning that, with the beetle killed trees in the park, this was a growing concern. Sure enough, on the way down, we came up on a tree partially fallen across the trail, looked at each other, and M asked "Was that there when we came up?"

It was not.