Date: January 29 and 30, 2016
Location: Lake Helene, Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP)
Distance: 6+/- miles (not counting side trips)
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 1,000 feet +/-
Weather: Friday –Very windy (up to 40 mph), 20s most of the time. Single digits with wind chill. Snowed Friday night and Saturday morning.
Group: Devin, Greg, Tyler, and Mat
Ever since we moved to Colorado, I have heard a lot about Rocky Mountain National Park. However, the 3.5 million (yes, million) visitors it sees each year has been a huge deterrent for me. Do that many people even visit Disneyland? Making a reservation for a backcountry campsite?? Bleh.
Fortunately, winter has a wonderful way of trimming down the number of visitors and eliminating the need for reservations. So, when we needed a place for January’s backpacking trip, we decided to give RMNP a shot.
Old Picture of some rangers at RMNP. Hold on tight.
We arrived about 10 AM, put on our snowshoes and began the 3-mile hike into Lake Helene. Disneylandish or not, this is a beautiful place. (White dots below is wind-blown snow).
This was a windy trip. Fortunately, we were shielded by hills and the trees much of the time, but when the wind had a chance to blast you, it made it clear who was pushing who around.
Tyler packed in his snowboard and found some places to make the 10-lbs worth it. Sweet jump, especially considering he is holding his snowshoes under his arm.
Our destination for the night – base of Notch Mountain.
The snow was like little grains of sand. Some wind erosion with the lower part of Notch Mountain in the background.
Given the 60 mph wind forecast, we took some time and anchored the Trangos down like it mattered.
Three hours of Spades (with our now official backpacking scoring rules), some sleep, a few inches of snow, and fortunately, not much wind later we woke to a very gray day.
Ice on Lake Helene with snow blowing in the background.
We stopped for a few snowboarding runs on the way out. The parking lot at the Bear Lake Trailhead was packed and we passed several snowshoers and cross country skiers on our way out. RMNP is truly a beautiful place, even if we have to share it with the rest of the world.
