Sonya and I headed just west of Ft Collins to get in some weekend hiking. Plan was to stay close to home, so the trails that push up to the north border of Rocky Mountain National Park were an easy call to make.
Early season snows made the trails above 10,000 ft deep in spots. Gaiters and/or snowshoes would have been a good call. Lucky for us, it didn't put a damper on the weekend.
Snow for the most part started to lessen the higher we went....especially above treeline. Thanks to the wind, all earlier snows were blown off the mountain and into the trees we just hiked through.
Up and up! We were not on trail above the treeline. We basically hiked to avoid snow.....and to follow what carins we could actually see.
The first day hiking result? Mummy Pass on the north border of Rocky Mountain National Park. This picture is looking south about 1 mile inside the north border of RMNP. Elevation was about 12,300 ft. Temps in the high 40F's and winds were pretty calm.
Day 2 had us heading in the same general direction. This time we headed a bit more east to Stormy Pass. This once again had us climbing up to 12,400+ ft.
Yesterdays hike had us on the backside of the ridge in the background of this image. Today, the temps were still around 45F degrees, but the winds were blowing at like 40 mph!
High winds = blowing snow. It was darn right cold at the top of Stormy Pass.....and not much shelter.
Getting out of the wind for a quick snack and rest.
Heading back down to the car at 8,600 ft. No snow....and much warmer temps.Pretty amazing how sore I am after these two 10 mile hikes. Wow! Check out all the photos from the weekend here.