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Rockies Vacation - Day 3, AM

We arose early the next day after spending the night in a quaint little motel in Boulder, hoping to get an early start on a day of hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. After stocking up on water, power bars, and other foodstuffs, we hit the road and arrived at the Beaver Meadows entrance in Estes Park at around 7 AM.

Rocky Mountain N.P. has a multitude of trails at every level of hiking difficulty. Our plan was to take a summit trail in the morning before the ubiquitous afternoon thunderstorms hit (the last place you want to be in a lightning storm is on the top of a mountain). We chose to hike the Chapin Pass trail to the tops of three peaks: Mt. Chapin, Mt. Chiquita, and Mt. Ypsilon.

My first mistake was that we missed the turn for the Old Fall River Road that would take us to the Chapin Pass trailhead. By the time I realized our mistake, we had driven well into the park, so we decided to hop out near the highest point on the Trail Ridge Road and explore the short Rock Cut trail. The view was beautiful as we hiked up a narrow trail through the alpine tundra toward the top of the ridge stopping frequently to snap pictures (and catch our breath).

My second mistake was to underestimate mountaintop weather. The sun was shining, but it was cold and the wind was blowing hard. I had several layers on, but nothing windproof and no hat. That was stupid. It was probably no more than 40 degrees at the top of the ridge with a heavy wind chill.

So, we turned around, headed back down the mountain and out of the park to the visitor center, where we bought wool hats and gloves. Then we made our way back up the Old Fall River Road, a narrow gravel road with multiple switchbacks where, again, I was happy to have some backwoods driving experience. We finally reached the Chapin Pass trailhead at around 10 AM, slurped down some water, had a brief snack and headed up the mountain clad in our new hats and gloves. We met some fellow hikers on the way, one solitary gentleman from SC and a couple from WI (they were all much more appropriately equipped then we). We decided to stick close together and compare observations on the weather since clouds were beginning to build up over the Divide.

The trail was easy to follow except a couple places where we nearly lost the trail in a patch of snow. After an hour or more of hiking, we reached the point where the trail split, one path leading toward the summit of Mt. Chapin and the other in direction and Mt. Chiquita. This was the point when the wind really started blowing. I was in the lead so I kept moving forward toward the saddle between Mts. Chapin and Chiquita while the rest of the group conferred at the split in the trail.

When I got to the saddle I was hit by two blasts. One was when the when the wind really, really started to blow, and the other was my amazement at the view laid out before me. Standing in the saddle I could look down into the beautiful Alpine valley around the Chapin Creek to the west and down a broad valley toward Horseshoe Park in the east. Kari, afraid that the wind might blow me over the edge, worked her way over to me and held on as a counterbalance against the wind while I snapped as many pictures as my frozen hands would allow. The rest of the group joined us for pictures and just as we were finishing, we began to get pelted by light hail.

As we looked down into the Chapin Creek valley, we could see rain and hail falling in sheets as a smallish rain cloud worked it's way across the valley almost at our eye level. It was strange to be looking down at the weather. We decided to turn back without attempting to climb any of the summits. As we climbed back down, the weather cleared briefly and in retrospect, we decided we could have at least made Mt. Chapin, but then we heard thunder rumbling in the distance and decided when travelling in the mountains, it is better to be safe than sorry.