Hanging Lake and Travel Day to Estes Park

July 16, 2011  Hanging Lake  Hiked 3.2 miles   Total miles 77.9

Today is transfer day.  We drive from Snowmass to Estes Park.  We wish we had a few more days here, but we have reservations. 

Before we leave and put five hours of driving into this truck Penny checks the oil.  The truck is still binging every time we turn it on with the Change Oil reminder.  I think we are almost to the point of ignoring this bing.

On the drive up to Estes we pass through Glenwood Canyon.  If you ever want to be amazed, look that road up on the internet or better yet drive it.   The Interstate is tucked in and wrapped around the canyon walls right next to the river.  There are even long sections of tunnel that were blasted through the mountain.  And there is even a wonderful bike path that has its own run next to the river and road.  But, currently sections of the canyon bike trail are closed as the river has swelled out if its banks and over taken the trail.

Today we are headed just past Glenwood Springs up to the Hanging Lake trail.  Short, very steep, very pretty and be careful!  The trail is very busy.  Busy with people who should not be thinking they can hike in these conditions.  The trail goes up 1,000 feet in 1.5 miles.  The last push to the top is up and over a cliff wall.  But no worries the park system has installed a sturdy iron railing and blasted the rock into large but convenient steps.  If you are at all faint of a small cliff of 30 or so feet, then I suggest not going up all the way to this point, just stay down by the river and watch it flow by and hit the rapids.

This trail even has an offical resting hut.

Picture is taken from a board walk.  The water is very clear and we can see fish swimming in the lake.

The lake was small but a delightful hue of blue clear water.  There were several brown trout swimming about five feet from the edge.  But for those of you fisherman who pack a fishing rod up the trail, don’t throw it in this lake as it is off limits!

If you climbed an additional trail you were treated with a water falls that at the top flew straight out before falling some 60 feet.  The waterfall also featured two spots where the water spouted out of the rock wall.  If you were willing to get a bit damp you could also go behind the water fall.

If look carefully you can see secondary falls inside of the main fall.  You can also see a person walking behind the falls.

One thing I noticed is the people really smelled good!  I smell lots of perfume, aftershave and clean smelling soap smells.  I think I have been in the woods too long!  I tell Kathi and she said she was noticing the same thing. J  This brought a whole new meaning for good smells on this hike.  Usually it means spruce and firm smells….  We have been in the back woods too long J

The Hanging Lake trail is well worth the effort, but don’t go on the weekend unless you get an early start!  And for goodness sakes do not go if you think this is a site that is easy to get too.

Stretcher on one wheel. 

Interstate tunnels.  You can see a truck heading for the tunnel.  These are a mile and half long.

On the way down we met a woman who got her foot stuck in between two rocks and then lost her balance.  I do not need to say anything other than she was very calmly laying and waiting for help to arrive.  I said a prayer for her as I know her vacation plans are now very different then what they were before.  We waited for the emergency rescue team to pass, and then finished our hike.  The lady was going to be coming down the rocky trail in a stretcher balanced on one wheel along with four guys who had to fast hike up, and transport her down.

We had a very interesting drive over to Estes. We went by the way of the Peak to Peak road. 

We wanted to stop along the way at the Brainard Lake Trail system and see what kind of hiking we could expect.  We found we could do some good hiking here, but snow was still a big issue.  Bring equipment for snow.  Ok, we turn around on the paved 2 WD road and head on out.

Since this Peak to Peak drive also passed the Longs Peak trailhead and Ranger Station we felt we should stop in and check out the conditions of the trail up to the peak.  Just five weeks ago the trail was totally snowed in.  Certainly there has been a lot of melting going on. From what we could read on the limited trail conditions about Longs Peak on the July 4^th weekend Longs Peak was still rated winter conditions.  That means ice axe and crampons along with the knowledge of how to use them well.    

The parking at Longs Peak trailhead during the summer is usually a full lot with cars way down the road parked along the ditch.  We drive right up and have front row parking.  Hmm, it seems pretty quite here.  Ranger station is open and we meet with a ranger who was happy to tell us that today was the first day that the hiking rangers down graded Longs Peak to non technical.  We talked with the ranger for a long time to make sure that we understood what conditions were and when the best weather might create a window of opportunity.  We talked about the keyhole, the ledges, the trough, the bottleneck, the narrows, and the home stretch…We talked about what time to leave, what to bring, how much water to carry and shoes.  We laughed about what we see the younger generation wearing for hiking shoes; sandals, crocs and running tennis shoes. 

All in all, the ranger had good confidence in us that we could go up there and make it to the top.  Why we looked like we were in shape and had good hiking boots! We seemingly possessed the ability to ask the correct questions to seem like good candidates to do a class 3 climb.

We reviewed the weather forecast and, we think Wednesday might be the best choice.

Keep your fingers crossed.