Until I return to the Rocky Mountains, read my new blog on Zen and Simplicity

American Zen - Journey to a Quiet Mind at simplybeingalive.blogspot.com

A hike in the Mummy Range

Up until now, I've done very little hiking in the Mummy Range, a small range north of the more frequented areas of Rocky Mountain National Park.  They are less crowded than other sections and offer fabulous hiking opportunities.

Our hike this morning was to include three peaks ... Chapin, Chiquita, and Ypsilon, the last two being 13000 footers.  It is often refered to as the CCY route.  A lot of scenery in a 7 mile hike. 

To begin we had to drive up the Old Fall River rd.  It was 6 am when we headed out, overcast and foggy.  I didn't have high hopes for the days views.

After we got on the trail and started climbing, the fog was beginning to burn off.

The views became incredible after a couple of hours of hiking.  The hike becomes a little intense for a day hiker after Mount Chapin.  The trail is not maintained and is straight up Chiquita.  No switchbacks.  

There was the typical high altitude wildlife - marmots, pikas, and I even had a few white tail Ptarmagin walk up to within 6 ft of me.

As we neared the peak of Mt. Yspilon, my lazy wife needed some rest.  Can't keep up with me.

At the top! 

Enough said.

Snow Shoeing in March

March is considered by many the best time of year to snow-shoe or alpine ski in this section of the Rockies.  It is generally warm on sunny days, but there is plenty of snow pack to enjoy yourself.  Much of our snow comes in March.

We decided to trek to Mills Lake for the magnificent views of Long's Peak, Cheif's Head Peak, and the Keyboard to the Winds.  Mills Lake was named for Enos Mills, who is credited with leading the effort to create Rocky Mountain National Park. He was an innkeeper, naturalist, and mountain guide on Longs Peak. Many consider this to be the prettiest lake in the area so the honor is appropriate.

The parking lot at Glacier Gorge was full so we had to park at Bear Lake and hike an extra 1/2 mile each way.  I normally prefer to hike on these well used trails, carrying a set of micro-spikes or crampons for safety but we'd recently had about a foot of fresh snow so we wore snow shoes.  Turns out they weren't necessary.  With such beatiful sunny weather all weekend , the snow base ( 50 inches ) was firmly packed from all of the other hikers.

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My wife, Julie, on the first leg of the trail.

A view to the north looking over Estes Valley toward the Mummy Range.

Before the trail splits to the Loch Vail or Mills Lake.

A lone, wind blasted, Limber Pine.  Hard to imagine the cold, windy winters it has seen up here.

Final destination, Mills Lake with a view of the Keyboards to the Wind, Cheif's Head Peak, and a limited view of Long's Peak.

Flying in the Rockies

A friend , Dick Gabrielson, offered to take my wife and I on a flight the other morning.  We jumped at the chance.  An early morning flight along the Front Range and a runway side breakfast at the airstrip sounded great.

After a short hop over to the Greeley airstrip and a good warm breakfast we headed west. 

Because Dick's wife Fran did not enjoy flying in the mountains, I didn't expect the tour we were about to receive.

We flew over Estes Park and then along the border of  Rocky Mountain National Park.  The unique view of Long's Peak was breathtaking

We then turned south and flew over the remote region of Wild Basin and through Indian Peaks Wilderness Area.  A hell of a way to spend the morning.

Birds & Waterfowl

Birds and waterfowl are plentiful in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park.  A recent survey performed over Christmas holidays confirmed a record number of total birds as well as record numbers of several individual species. 

I recently purchased a new long lens.  The larger wildlife in the park were not cooperating, so prompted by reading of our record number of birds, I decided to test my new lens on some of the many birds in the area.  Below are some of my recent shots.  The spring should bring literally hundreds of new species.

Moab - Arches, Canyons & the Colorado River

I took a short 3 day trip down to Moab the other day just to break the winter duldrums.  I've read about Moab for years in various outdoor adventure magazines.  Frankly, I figured it was overblown and expected to be let down.  I was not. 

Traveling from Colorado, be sure to take scenic Hwy 128 instead of Hwy 191.  It is absolutely breathtaking.  The scenic highway meanders through free-range, scrubby, destert fields the first few miles and seems lonely and empty.  It then turns west and falls into a canyon following the Colorado river.  It was breathtaking this time of year, filled with ice as it meandered past the red canyon walls.

Arches National Park is truly amazing and worth seeing.  The photo ops are unending.

Canyonlands will probably turn out to be my favorite of the two when I have more time to explore it.  It is much larger so I was only able to skim the surface in the 5 hours I had to visit it.  There are thousands of canyons that beg to be explored when I have more time in better weather.  The weather was cloudy, then it started snowing, so my pics of Canyonlands don't do it justice.

I can't wait to go back in warmer weather to hike Canyonlands and to float the Colorado. 

First Day of Winter in Rocky Mountain National Park

Had to get out into the park on the first true day of winter.  There was snow on the ground, but the weather was agreable, the sun was out and temp got up to about 32.

The animals were moving about and easily seen. 

These Coyotes were hunting and ignored me for the first few minutes I was observing.

They then displayed a curious behaviour.  They layed down in the middle of a snowbank, right out in the sun in the light of day.  I was amazed and sat watching them for several minutes.  They showed not intent to move at all.  After a few minutes I decided to move on. 

As I moved about 50 yards up the road, they suddenly sprang up on their feet and immediately crossed where I had been standing.  Seems they were very particular about where they wanted to cross the road.

The next day, I hiked up Cub Lake trail.  Will post pics soon.