RMNP Part III : Twin Sisters

Today was “Part III” of our hiking endeavors to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), Colorado. Hiking has turned into quite the summer hobby, as we’ve been hiking every weekend since the end of May. Well, except for once, when it stormed all weekend. Anyway – our hike, today, took us to Twin Sister’s peaks in RMNP, Co.  The hike stats are as follows:

• Total Distance: ~7.4mi, round-trip.
• Trip Time: ~3.5-4 hours, round-trip.
• Elevation: 9,040′ (trailhead) – 11,413′ (at the West Peak)

We left from Fort Collins this morning around 6:00AM, and started hiking around 7:30ish.  Here’s the view from the trailhead (although this picture was taken around noon; I typically take photos on the way back down the mountain):

Twin Sisters peaks from the trailhead.

If you open up the picture, start at the highest peak in the center, and work your way to the left.  You should eventually see a very small radio tower, which sits right next to the West peak of Twin Sisters.  We reached the radio tower at around 9:20AM, which was my first photo of the day:

Radio tower at the top of Twin Sisters.

The sign reads: “Twin Sisters Electric Site. Please protect this site. These radios are used for finding lost hunters locating downed aircraft and saving lives.  USDA Forest Service”.  So I can only assume that this is a (HAM) radio relay so that rescuers and forest rangers don’t have their radio service “blocked” by the mountains.  Any other interpretations are welcome; The hut appears to be powered by a series of large solar panels located near the West peak.  The hut is clearly built to be non-intrusive, as it completely blends in with the surrounding rocky landscape.

Rock formation near Twin Sisters West.

I’m not sure exactly why I took that photo of a rock formation, but for some reason I like it.

We spent about 30-45 minutes at the West peak, eating trail mix. We typically eat lunch (sandwiches) at the summit, but 9:30 is a tad early for the midday meal. The east peak is also accessible (and there’s even a registry!) but one peak was good enough for me!  This trail does see plenty of action, so be prepared to share the summit with other humans as well as other critters that may show up. Our second wildlife encounter, today, was with a marmot, who was not exactly pleased with our arrival.  The first encounter was on the drive to RMNP, when a herd of big horn sheep decided that they wanted to plant themselves in the middle of the highway. Sorry, no pictures since I cannot stand it when people stop on the highway to take photos.

Marmot at the West Twin Sisters Peak.

The third encounter was with the many chipmunks, who have figured out that tired hikers like to share their lunches.  DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE! They just get more and more aggressive. This one was especially friendly – I do not own a zoom lens (all pictures taken with a Nikkor 50mm 1.8D), so the chipmunk really was “that close”. I cheated a bit by cropping the marmot – He kept his distance!

Chipmunk near my pack.

Now that you’ve suffered through my photos, and my narrative – time for the views from the summit! This first photo is a view of Long’s Peak from Twin Sisters, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong – I’m just assuming that Long’s Peak is in the “generally west” direction from Twin Sisters! But I’m fairly certain this is Long’s, because of the telltale ‘notch’ to the left.

View from Twin Sisters West.

And some views in the other direction (“east-ish”, if you’re using Dittmann Cardinal Directions).

View from Twin Sisters West.

This next photo was taken near the saddle in between the two Twin Sisters peaks. The rocks in the foreground make this (probably) my favorite photo from the trip. The Rocky Mountains are just like their namesake on all the peaks. I feel that the photo gives you get a general idea of the landscape at the peak, in addition to the views in the background.

Now we’re coming down the mountain. The Twin Sisters trail is almost completely surrounded by state forest until you get above the tree line (probably ~80% of the entire trip is in the forest). After you get above the tree line, moss and wildflowers are the only things that are able to grow in between the rocks.

Wildflowers near Twin Sisters trail.

I’ve decided I cannot be a “flower” photographer, just because I cannot seem to get myself excited and motivated enough to do a “good job” with flowers as my subject.

In summary, I would probably rate this as a ‘moderate’ hike, both in difficulty and in enjoyment. For difficulty, the trail is a tad steep, but the entire trip is a little on the short side. For enjoyment, the views at the summit are definitely worth the trip, but the hike,itself, is a bit boring. 80% of your time is spent on (steep) switchbacks below the tree line, with little-to-no views or landmarks along the way. But maybe I was spoiled during the Sky Pond hike, where there is something interesting to see every 20 minutes.

Apparently, June Is Too Early

Stream Crossing

Today was forecast to be a crispy 80-90 degrees, here in Fort Collins, so we decided to try and do a hike up near State Forest State Park. The conditions were reported as ” There is still snow on the trails so conditions may be muddy. No motorized trails are open at this time. “. The latter part of this report translates to “there are no roads open at this time” – for the most part, the main roads to all of the trailheads were closed. Oh well – what’s another 1-2 miles for a hike? We were going to try to just do “part” of the American Lakes trail, because things were already looking a little dicey from the road.

Melting

After trudging through knee/waist-high snow for ~1.5 miles on the road, and being greeted by an even sloppier trail head, we decided to turn back. My shorts were not prepared for a 10 mile hike in the snow. Oh well – we’ll come back, later, this year.

State Forest Trail

Also – I got a new camera to take these pictures! The first one is probably the only ‘decent’ one – the rest are a bit over-exposed (note that there is no detail in the sky on the last pic).

Hiking Round Mountain

More Round Mountain views near the summit.

Today we took on a bit of a longer hike – probably not a “real man’s” hike, but the Round Mountain Trail still takes ~6-8 hours to hike. We were able to go up and back the 4.75 mile trail (for a total of 9.5 miles) in ~5 hours, hitting the trail head at about 8:00AM. Other internet-savvy hikers had mentioned that this trail was “unforgiving” and “relentless”, and I have to agree with them. The first ~2-3 miles are a pretty grueling uphill slope. Afterwards, there is a bit of a respite for a mile until the final steep grade to the summit.

The Last Mile on Round Mountain

The trail, itself, is very well-marked, with clear mile markers and interesting “nature-walk” type plaques that describe some of the more interesting natural phenomena. They’re spaced well, so the plaques also make for a good excuse for a break. There are plenty of cairns along the way, but I think those are mostly a joke – you won’t need them!

Wildflowers on Round Mountain

The summit is a bit of a downer – there’s literally just a huge cairn at the top, next to the official summit marker. Be sure to capture the high views on the way up when you get the opportunity. There is also a log book – I think that all trails should have one of these, as it’s kind of fun to read on the top, while eating lunch. I think that ‘Rudy’ must be the Ranger, since he signed in the book almost every week in January – “trying to get in shape”, and “lots of snow”. I think Rudy is probably well above the “in shape” level for your standard American – hiking 10 miles in the snow in January!

Cairn at the summit of Round Mountain

Not from the summit - but on the way up!

Hiking Arthur’s Rock

Today we woke up eaaarly (before 6:00) to do some hiking at Lory State Park.  I am finding that spring is the best time for hiking in the foothills, because as the snow melts in the upper altitudes it cascades down to the foothills.  This creates a lot of ‘spontaneous’ waterfalls at the lower elevations.

We took the ‘moderate to difficult’ Arthur’s Rock trail, to the peak of Arthur’s Rock – there definitely needs to be some standardization on trail difficulty ratings, because I would have rated this one pretty easy.  Especially in comparison to many of the other ‘easy’ hikes that I’ve done!  It was a moderate uphill climb most of the time, with some extremely mild “bouldering” towards the peak.  ~1.7 miles one-way, so it’s good for an early Sunday morning hike. I would guess that it probably took us ~1-2 hours to do the hike – I know that we pulled into the Visitor’s Center at exactly 8:05 AM (they open at 8:00…) and were back in time for lunch around 11:00-11:30.

Watchmen Movie

A group of friends were going to see a movie called ‘Watchmen’ on Monday evening.  Since I don’t have cable and hardly ever watch TV, I had not seen any previews for this movie.  I only had a title to go by.  I have since decided that this is by far the best way to see a movie – I had absolutely no expectations of what the movie was supposed to portray.

Maybe it was just fun for me because as the opening credits rolled (which are extensive), I saw the big ‘DC Comics’ logo flash on the screen.  My first thoughts were something along the lines of “oh, great – another comic book movie that everybody will rave about for 6 months until Watchmen: The Beginning comes out.  I expect tight spandex, drawn out fight scenes, gruff voices, and lasers.  Plenty of lasers.”  I wasn’t even sure what the movie was rated, as I literally just bought my ticket (no lines on Monday night) and sat down in the theater.  At this point I was expecting a PG-13ish adaption for the big screen. As it turns out, I may have been wrong with that assumption. 

Watchmen features plenty of over-the-top gore that rivals the chainsaw scene in Scarface.  The violence is layered on top of the many ‘Blue-penis’ scenes, which sent the row of high-schoolers behind me into a chorus of laughter and giggles each time Dr. Manhatten waltzed onto the Big Screen in all his renaissance glory.  I thought we were all supposed to be adults?

I must say that I was mentally unprepared for this mature assault on my senses, but I think that this made the movie a better overall experience.   Going into the story with nothing, expecting nothing, I was surprised and captivated by every twist and turn.  I think that this is the way that movies are meant to be watched – the audience has no preconceptions of what the film should be, and instead just allows the director to show them an imaginary world through their lens.  Hollywood promos and reviews should run as follows:

Movie Title.  Rating.

as I feel that this makes for a more enjoyable experience for the consumer.  Especially with all the garbage that is coming out of Hollywood, right now (every single movie advertised in the theater was a sequel or prequel for a film I had already seen – no new IP?!?! come on! clearly they’re just trolling for $$), I feel that even bad films could benefit since the audience is really not expecting anything special.

As far as Watchmen goes, I felt that it was a good movie – not great, but good. The plot was a little bit haphazard and felt like it was a little ‘rushed’ (even though it took almost 3 hours) – as if the storyteller wanted to say more.  Or maybe they just want you to buy the comics to flesh out the sketchy parts…

I’m not sure if I would go and see the movie, again, but it was worth the $7 I paid for it.

Hiking Grey Rock, CO

Last weekend (2008-06-14) Heather and I took a trip out hiking to Greyrock Mountain (just NW of Fort Collins). I just spent ~2 hrs figuring out how to upload the pictures (sorry, WordPress won’t let me do thumbnails!) and getting the GPS data into Google Maps. As a result, I don’t really feel like typing up a huge post to go with the pictures…

Heather and I woke up at ~6:00 AM so start the hike at 8:00AM. Finished the hike around 1:30PM. We took the ‘Meadow trail’ both times (by accident). If you look closely (Google Earth is better for this), you’ll notice that we didn’t quite make it to the summit. At the top of Greyrock there are 3 ‘peaks’ – or rather, 3 higher points of interest surrounding a lake. We didn’t go all the way to the very summit of Greyrock, as we wanted to get back at a decent time, although the hike was still very fun.

Greyrock Mountain ‘Meadow Trail’

Here’s some other links to people who have hiked this trail:
Sam Cox (Landscape Imagry)