Snowshoeing Guides and Trips

Another easy snowshoe in RMNP, trail-head well marked.  Final destination was the Big Meadows, fed by the Tonahutu Creek.The elk were in the low-country, so all we saw was a lot of moose tracks.  And plenty of snow.Never did find the 2 cabins remains at the Big Meadows.  Probably didn't go far enough.

Another great day in the high-country...enjoying the mountain weather that Mother Nature brewed for us.  It's just plain awesome to see the chaotic clouds of spindrift coming off the Divide.My last snowshoe visit to Embryo Lake was 3 years ago, and was pretty much on trail.  This trip was mostly off-trail, and offered a "tour de ponds", hitting in addition to the Loch, "Serendipity", "Little Bear", and a couple of other unnamed shallow,...

I had the distinct honor of climbing McGregor Mountain with a real, true, Scotsman!  And...what's in an "A"?I asked him "what's the difference between a Mc.... and a Mac....?"   He said the Mac usually refers to Scottish origin, and the Mc to Irish origin.So the question I ask, why is the mountain at the base of the old MacGregor Ranch, an early Estes Valley homesteader, named McGregor (note lack of "a")?...

The normal approach to Steep Mountain is on the south slope.  We chose to do a different approach: go off-trail, and bush-whack up the forested east slope.The east face is the leeward slope, so the snow was deep.  The Front Range is currently under a "Considerable" avalanche danger state.  Partway up the 30º slope, we experienced a couple of "whoomphs", with fracture lines evident in the 2" slabs.  The layer below was...

Ever have that "I should not be here" moment?  Lily Mountain Trail is an easy summer dayhike, with a little scramble at the summit.  Snow adds a little more difficulty, and doing Lily mountain from Lily Lake climbers trail makes it a totally different experience.I climbed this route in May of 2011, when the slopes were pretty snow-free, an easy Class-3 climb.  Our encounter with sugar-sand snow on the 35º granite slabs was unexpected....

Amazing...trees that were bigger than you could hug, were snapped off or uprooted.  The blow-down resulted from a November 21, 2011 microburst that hit the Glacier Gorge area of Rocky Mountain National Park.We were going to try and hike through it to reach Black Lake, but the tangle of logs, branches made it nearly impassible.  And one questions the wisdom of passing under partially supported trees under high wind conditions.  We decided to turn back....

Previously, I had done loop hikes to Storm Pass and Estes Cone from the following points:Lily Lake trail-head, 7.5 milesStorm Pass trail-head, 8.8 milesLongs Peak trailhead, 6.3 milesThis opportunity was a "connect the points" point-to-point snowshoe from the Longs Peak to Storm Pass trail-heads, with a fun climb to the summit of Estes Cone (11,006')....and something different, a clear day on the summit!  It was great to be on the summit, and...

The East Inlet is a drainage on the westerly side of the Continental Divide, and empties into Grand Lake.  The trail-head is in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) Wilderness area, and near the West Portal of the 13-mile-long Adams Tunnel.  This buried aqueduct is a diversion channel that carries water under the Continental Divide,  from the west to the east slope.  The East Portal is near the YMCA camp.About 1/4 mile from...

Hidden Valley is an old lift-operated downhill ski resort (Ski Estes Park) that operated between 1955 - 1991 along U.S. 34, five miles (8 km) west of Estes Park.  It was the trailhead for our snowshoe to Rainbow Curve, a pullout along Trail Ridge Rd (US-34) with rewarding views of the Mummy Range.We chose to make a loop out of the hike, ascending one ski run, and descending another.  Unfortunately, the weather was...

Our goal was to reach Lake Helene, a short easy hike normally.  But under the conditions, we opted to turn around at the near side of Two Rivers Lake.  The wind was ferocious.