Take a Walk
A Quest into the Wild
Photo Contest: Please vote
Please vote for one of Thomas’s photos for the Weather Channel “It’s amazing out there! Photo Contest. It’s a long shot, but we would love for all our readers to help out! You may vote for one photo every 24 hours.
This photo was taken in Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side of the peninsula. Right in front of our hotel was the stage for the 2014 Cabo Clasico Skimboarding Competition. Thomas managed to capture some of the action with his Nikon D3100.
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This photo was taken in the old ghost mining town of Animas Forks, about 10 miles from Silverton, CO. We found the remnants of the old Jailhouse while exploring. Torturing windows allowed prisoners to view the pristine San Juans from their cell.
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This third photo was taken just two weekends ago atop the 13er James Peak. We reached the summit and were immediately surprised by this giant cloud moving straight for us.
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Sandbeach Lake Wild Basin: RMNP
Distance: 9.03 miles (out and back) Elevation Gain: 2,097 (total) 1,984 (net)
Max Elevation: 10,348 ft Min. Elevation: 8,364 ft
This past Saturday we headed to one of our favorite spots in all of Colorado: Wild Basin in Rocky Mountain National Park. While most of the crowds head to Bear Lake or the Glacier Gorge in this park, we headed to the more southern secluded Wild Basin which is located right off of Hwy 7 just past Allenspark, CO. It tends to provide relief from packed, loud trails for the most part minus Ouzel falls which is wildly popular on a pleasant summer day. We traded an early start for extra sleep placing us on the trail at roughly 12:00 pm. The park ranger greeted us kindly and directed us into a parking space right below the Sandbeach Trailhead. Our goal for the day was to follow the 4.5 mile trail to its conclusion at the exquisite Sandbeach Lake. The unique lake rests just below the base of Mt. Orton and reaches a depth of nearly 50 ft, one of the deepest lakes in all of RMNP. Another 3,000 feet up, Mt. Meeker towers above the north shore of the lake. On a clear day, Longs Peak can be seen sneaking up behind it.
The trail gained elevation immediately, taking us through a dense forest of lodgepole and ponderosa pine and large groves of aspens. As we walked the trail the aspen leaves chimed like noiseless bells above our heads. After 1.4 miles of climbing, the trail reached a split for the Meeker Park Trail. Just after this point, the forest canopy eased up a bit and allowed us to view the North St. Vrain Creek as we edged along a rocky steep grade. Though not appreciated by all, we thoroughly enjoyed this portion of the hike. The basin was brilliantly colored. Green covered everything, and the creek ebbed and flowed among it. It was reminiscent of a Louisiana Bayou, at least from afar. Seen below are photos of this portion of the hike.
After another 0.5 miles, the trail flattened for a spell and intermittently took us through sections of sand. At 2.5 miles in, we finally reached a small creek that we heard gurgling for the last 15 min of our hike. A small foot bridge let us easily across, and shortly after we were surprised with a small lake of which we cannot find a name. It might have been the remnants of melted snow or recent heavy rains. The trail once again began to gently climb, and led us to the Hunter’s Creek Crossing. When we approached the lake, we realized the foot bridge had been washed away from the floods last fall. The water was a bit fast and deep to ford, so we searched for another way across. A large tree had fallen upriver making an alternative route, albeit requiring lots of good balance. With one foot in front of the other and arms out by our sides, we carefully crossed and bushwacked back to the trail. Seen below are the small lake and Hunter’s Creek without a bridge.
Once we crossed Hunter’s Creek, we had about one more mile to go with an elevation gain of about 500 ft to reach the beaches of Sandlake. The trail turned steep and we began to see patches of snow. And as we climbed higher, the patches of snow turned into mountains of snow. The trail was not as visible anymore. We hadn’t expected snow on this trail, and were not thrilled to be post-holing again. The last mile felt really long, Finally, we reached the north shore of the lake. Piles of snow dead ended into coarse yellow sand. The sand led to dark blue alpine lake water. It looked surreal. We tried to capture this stark contrast in the photo below.
Sandbeach rightly earns its name with a wide sandy shoreline. We enjoyed walking along the beach and picknicking on a nearby boulder. Mt. Meeker loomed to the north tempting us to climb her. We caught a glimpse of Longs Peak as well. The lake was so relaxing. We wandered along a social trail to gain different views of the lake. Chipmunks scurried around us, eyeing our snacks. Seen below are photos from our time at the lake.
Quite honestly, it was hard to bring ourselves to pack up and head back. We saw a couple of backpackers and a campsite set up by the lake. We were really wishing we had packed our overnight gear. As a reminder that the mountains are still a harsh environment, even in June, cold gusts of wind crept up on us. The sun hid behind the clouds. We figured a backcountry camp out might actually be more comfortable in July. Our return trip, went quite a bit faster. A brief, gentle rain shower fell on us as we neared the trail head. As the sun crept out, a beautiful rainbow appeared over the St. Vrain Creek and Wild Basin.
We finished the hike just after 6 pm. The sun was still out, so we drove in the park a little further to the Ouzel Falls trailhead to get a few photographs of the powerful Calypso Cascades. We hiked in about 0.5 miles to reach the upper and lower cascades. The trail was empty. We had the falls to ourselves.
The temperatures dropped as the sun set and hunger set in. We drove into Lyons, Colorado, and finished our day adventure at the original Oscar Blues Brewery.
James Peak Summit
Distance: 8.41 miles (out and back) Elevation Gain: 2,965 (total) 2,920 (net)
Max Elevation: 13,305 ft Min. Elevation: 10,385 ft
On Saturday, June 7th we repeated a hike/climb to the top of 13er, James Peak. This was our first early season summit attempt, and despite all the remaining snow fields and subsequent route-finding, the hike was quite successful. On Friday evening, weather forecasts were predicating rain/snow showers all day long, and we resigned to the idea of another weekend indoors watching movies for fun and hopping on the treadmill for conditioning. Fast-forward to early Saturday morning, and the weather predication changed completely. The front range went from 80% precipitation to 0% overnight. We threw on our hiking clothes and backpacks and jumped in the car. By 10:00 am we were at the parking lot about 3/4 miles from the base of St. Mary’s Glacier. The temperature was perfect for the start of the hike, and we didn’t see snow until we got much closer to the lake. We moved quickly to reach the base of the snowfield and began the long slog up the side of the glacier. This time we both had hiking poles for stability, which proved vital for this hike as we had to post-hole and wander across ice in many later sections of the trip.
Getting to the top of the glacier is much more difficult than it initially appears. It looks like the top is just a little further, but once you get to that point, it becomes apparent that there is still more and more to climb. We don’t have many photos of the glacier this time, since we’ve visited many times before. Seen below is the trail that develops just beyond it. 75% of this trail was snow free.
The next mile or so of the hike is very flat for the most part. The path is very straight forward until it runs into a 4-wheeler trail. The trail reconnects about 75 yards away from the junction, but there was a lot of snow from this point on. We were unable to see a clear path, but James Peak loomed in the distance as our guide. We walked steadily upward across snowfields for a good 15 min before, we saw a cairn, and the trail peek through a bit. The snow, for the most part, was packed in quite well, with the exception of a few sneaky soft spots. We were fine with sturdy hiking boots and poles. Along the way up, we got a great look at Steuart Lake which can be seen below. It was still partially frozen.
After this point, we began to feel the air thin out as we got closer and closer to 13,000 ft. We noticed that it began to get later in the day, and we had a wedding to attend in the early evening. We halfway considered turning back, but we had a little case of “summit fever” and pressed on. The trail weaved in and out of snowfields and ice. Dry sections pleasantly surprised us on occasion but as we reached the final 300 feet, we were forced into the snow for the final pitch. There was no trail to follow, so we just climbed up the side of the peak. It will be quite interesting to see our route in the summer when it has all melted away.
Shortly after summiting, a large cloud headed straight toward us engulfing us in a blanket of thick white air. We were fortunate to get a few views and photos before it blocked out the surrounding scenery and blasted us with cold mountain air. Seen below are photos of the final section, and our five minutes at the summit.
And then….
We hauled it down the mountain now for two reasons: to be able to see and to make the wedding. In fact, we were able to glissade a few times on the way down which was incredibly fun and shaved off a few min from the descent. Seen below are photos on the way back. And yes, we did lose five minutes to pose LIFE magazine style.
It’s interesting the lengths we will go to spend five minutes on top of the world. 2.5 hours of hard climbing, plus the risk of getting ready for a wedding in a gas station bathroom all for 5 min. of breathtaking splendor. But if you hike and/or climb, you completely understand. Life is too short to miss spending a gorgeous Saturday outside in Colorado. This was a great way to start our hiking season. We chose a nice challenge with an amazing reward. We can’t wait for the next one!
Lumpy Ridge Trail and Bear Lake: Estes Park, Apr 25-27
We wanted to share with you a trip last month to the wonderful town of Estes Park including a stay at the iconic Stanley Hotel. Charmaine and Will came into town for the weekend, and we drove into the mountains together to attend the 2nd annual Stanley horror film festival and hike some of Rocky Mountain National Park. We began our trip with a short day hike into the Lumpy Ridge region of Rocky Mountain National Park on a trail that leads to the famous Gem Lake. We’ve done this hike numerous times but can never resist taking guests here when they come into town. The quick elevation gain on this hike leads to amazing views of Estes Park and the snow covered Rockies behind it. The hike also affords the opportunity to boulder on some of the interesting rock formations that comprise this unique area of the park. In fact, this is actually a very popular rock climbing location. Seen below are the photos leading up this trail.
The weather was perfect, and jackets were not necessary as we steadily climbed up lumpy ridge. The trail was dry and not too crowded since it was a Friday afternoon. We paused frequently along the way for photos and various opportunities to leap or climb on as many things as possible. In fact, Will enjoyed this so much he couldn’t stop even when the panicked screams from Charmaine began to get louder as he leaped from rock to rock. About half way up the trail, Will and Thomas found a way to this incredible overlook. Seen below are photos of the whole gang seeing how dangerously close to cliffs and crevices we could get to.
The views were incredible, but mom (aka charmaine) had seen enough so we headed back to get dinner and check out some film festival happenings. Things were already underway at the Stanley with an array of famous horror industry people wandering around the grounds and movie screenings beginning. We opted to see a film called “Blood Glacier” which seemed fitting as it takes place in a beautiful mountain landscape full of wildlife. Only in the film, the wildlife develops into scary dangerous mutants that spawn from a “bleeding glacier” ….Seen below are photos of the Stanley all alpenglow, albeit artificially.
The next day, we took Charmaine into the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park: Bear Lake. The weather and trail conditions were completely different than what we found the day before at Lumpy Ridge. Bear lake was mostly still frozen and snow covered the trail surrounding it. Bear lake can be seen pictured at the top of this post. Thomas headed out to get some photos at the nearby Dream and Nymph Lakes while the rest of slogged around Bear Lake, since we just had regular hiking boots. As we paused for some pictures, a loud splash sounded behind us. The weak ice had given way to the weight of a young teenager sending him on an early season swim of Bear Lake. The water was shallow, and he was fine but it kept all of us a little bit more cautious. Seen below are photos of us slipping and sliding around the “nature walk” that encircles the lake.
We then headed back to the film festival and viewed our next haunting thriller. The film was called “babadook”…pronounced ba….ba…dook….in a very creepy accent. This film was hand selected by and a treat from Charmaine. We won’t go into too many details, but think scary creature comes to life from children’s book…lives under the bed….. When the creature comes calling he makes three loud knocks. When we went back to our condo, we kept hearing these three loud bangs all through the night. We still can’t figure out what caused the strange noise. Later that evening we went to the film festival’s annual gala. The party was fabulous. There was a photo booth, champagne, strange food, and Elijah Wood as our DJ. That’s right. Frodo hung out with us for the night as he was an attendee at the festival to receive an award for his company Spectrevision. Even though the spirit of the blog is hiking and the outdoors, we cannot resist sharing some of these funny photos from the party and photo booth “crime scene”.
And yes, that last photo is our new friend DJ Frodo and what a nice guy he is. He let Charmaine give him a big hug and played some nice beats for us. We all had a blast together and finished off the trip the next morning with a wonderful breakfast at the Stanley (just the fam, not Elijah 😉 ) Charmaine and Thomas took a haunted tour through the hotel, and we were on our way back to work and the real world.
