Steps in the Right Direction: Mt. Ida

Back up early and drive over the trail ridge road to Milner Pass. On the way we encounter two herds of cow elk having morning calisthenics on the road. Since we are the only people on the road we stop and take a few pictures. We made good time over and down to the pass by 6:50 and ready to hike by 6:55. Remember yesterday when we stopped in the ranger station to inquire about the time the parking lot might be filled by. Well, in case you are reading this and would like to know...it fills up sometime between 7-7:30. There were about six other cars already at the lot, but room for about 10 more.

5 years ago we did a hike up to Mount Ida, the trailhead at Milner's pass was all snowed in. It had not melted out yet. As we were trying to find the trail we actually found a family of four from Carolina who had hiked down from the Alpine Visitor Center with plans of hiking up to Mount Ida. They too were having a hard time finding the trail through the snow. The trail this time is not covered with snow so we walk right up the trail. We gain over 800 feet in the first mile and leave the treeline behind for the next four miles. The trail doesn't actually “exist” on the park topo maps and it's is another one of those unimproved trails. This unimproved trail looks better than a few or the official trails over in Indian Peaks.

I have programmed gps coordinates into my gps to use when we get the end of the established trail. This helps greatly as we spent so little time hiking through the talus fields and really just followed the best route up with minimal talus hiking. NICE last time we did A LOT of talus hiking and managed to find every false summit there was. This time we hiked across the back shoulder of Mount IDA and then pretty much made a straight up push up the mountain to the summit.

The way we came up this year was WAY easier. At the top we met a large high school group that were very respectful.Yeah! They were from a Catholic Adventure Camp. Each day they go out on some big adventure. Rock climbing, white water rafting, and hiking high. Something different every day testing the limits of the campers while also bringing them closer to God’s creation through its wide variety of outdoor activities. It was a refreshing conversation with the campers, and staff. The middle schoolers from Flattop should sign up for this camp!

The summit of Mt. Ida (12,889) ranks as the 25th highest mountain in the RMNP. It offers some of the best views in the park. A sweeping 360 degree view which include the Never Summer Mountains towards the west, the Mummy Range towards the northeast, Terra Tomah Mountain, Mt. Julian and Cracktop Mountain immediately to the east. Along with Longs Peak to the southeast and the kawuneeche Valley, Julian Lake, Big Meadows and Shadow Mountain Lake towards the southwest. Sitting in the cirque basin more than a thousand feet below is Azure Lake and Inkwell Lake.Yep, a lot to look at!

We see the clouds starting to change so we head out. Our first challenge is to hike down the talus field and to the established “unimproved” trail. We can see the trail, just have to get down to it. Then it is four miles back across the alpine tundra to get to tree line before the weather breaks. Along the way we stop to take a movie of a tour guide marmot. Just before we get to tree line we see a bighorn ram sheep. We take about a fifteen second movie before the rain starts. Head to tree cover and get on down the trail before we get wet or the storm arrives.

When we arrive at the trailhead we find it bustling with people! We sat on our tailgate and ate the rest of our lunch and watched to people. After some good people watching we headed up the road to drive back to Estes. The Alpine Visitor center parking lot was full and cars parked up and down the road. We drove slowly past the commotion and continued around the next blind corner to find a huge long line of cars that were in a traffic jam. A mile and half to the issue...three bull elks eating grass next to the road caused people to lose their minds. People just stop their cars right in the middle of the road to get out to take pictures. There were four rangers up there trying to move people along. Telling people to get back into their cars and get moving.

My thought is if people would be more willing to get out of their cars and go for a hike they would find vast amounts of elk to take pictures of without causing a traffic jam.