You start this hike from the Glacier Gorge Trail Head.  Parking this time of year is starting to fill up, but this Monday it was fine.  Shuttles are running from the Park-n-Ride if you need them.  Slightly overcast and warmer than the cold weekend weather I was able to get by with a fleece and raincoat. The day before I would have wore a parka.

The water is still running fiercely in the rivers, streams and trails in the park. I had to do a lot of rock hopping to keep my boots dry.

Along the trail to Alberta Falls

I usually don’t go by the way of Alberta Falls and prefer to short cut, but today I wanted to see the falls with all the amazing snow melt we are experiencing. It is still early summer and the trails were not crowded. Alberta Falls is such a short hike you see all types of hikers-serious backpackers or people out for a stroll wearing pressed shirts and Dockers pants.

Marsh Marigolds

Glacier Creek

Alberta Falls

The plants and wildflowers are going to be extravagant this year. You can see the foliage starting to come out as the snow melts away. We didn’t encounter any snow on the trails until right before the Loch where there is still a large snowfield. The sign for the lake is still partially buried in the drift.

Snow field before the Loch

Cathedral Wall at the Loch

This is a great intermediate hike, only 2.95 miles to the Loch. If you are hiking with children, places to stop and rest along the creek are plentiful. Later in Summer you will find raspberries and lush Columbines in the area where the trails split to go to either Mills Lake or the Loch. Right now you can see the Marsh Marigolds ready to bloom along the creeks and drainages.  Great views of the park to North and also Half Mountain as you hike. Once you arrive at the Loch the landscape and cliffs are amazing. Sit on the shore and enjoy views of Powell Peak, Taylor Glacier, the Cathedral Wall, in the distance Timberline Falls. If you choose to continue you are only 1.4 miles from Lake of Glass.  See you on the trail!

Equipment at the Alpine Visitor Center

We missed the first day of the Trail Ridge Road opening, but we drove up the next day. This has become a tradition of our family to drive over to Grand Lake opening weekend. We stop and act like tourists at all the overlooks and play in the snow.  If it’s not too snowy my husband runs up Heart Attack Hill, which this year it was blocked off.  We did stop and play in the snow at Poudre Lake, it was way over my kids’ heads.  As we dropped down after Poudre Lake we kept our eyes peeled for moose along the Colorado River and luckily we found a group of cars stopped right before you turn into the village.  As we drove we talked about how the landscape has changed with the mountain pine beetle damage killing so many Lodgepole Pines.  There are large clearings where the park service has removed diseased trees for the safety of campers. We ate at the Sage Brush Inn, they have great food and service and the girls love to throw peanut shells on the floor, each other, other patrons, the waitress-if you have kids you get my point.  Afterwards we grabbed some world famous ice cream at Grand Lake Chocolates and walked down to the lake to eat it. The kids played in the freezing cold water at the lake until their lips were blue and it was time to head back home.

Poudre Lake Snow

Grand Lake Moose

Here is a short video with some footage of the road, don’t watch if you get motion sick easily. I was just holding the camera as I sat in the car…

Currently we are in a flood watch, with the spring snow melt and recent rain all the rivers and lakes are near or exceeding their banks.  Some friends of ours who live along the Fall River have two feet of water in their crawl space, so you can guess we are all watching the water very closely.  Residents along the river are sandbagging low lying areas and reinforcing retaining walls.  Saturday was cooler with temps in the 40′s and heavy rain .  Today was heavy rain for hours this morning.  Our family was headed to Grand Lake yesterday morning to eat at the Fat Cat Cafe when they closed Trail Ridge Road due to heavy rains.  So we turned around and decided to check out the water situation the whole town in buzzing about.  These pictures may not be surprising if you have never seen these rivers before, but to us locals who see these on a regular basis the rate of water is startling.

This is the view of the Roaring River in the Alluvial Fan Area.  Now a historical marker and geological reminder of the Lawn Lake Flood, it is a favorite of my kids.  Boulder strewn everywhere to play on and the river close by.  Later in the summer you would find people playing in the water and soaking up the sun, not today though. If you are interested in learning more about this flood here is a informative article.

Alluvial Fan

Here is my husband he hiked up to a large Boulder to get a better vantage point.

This is a short two minute video of some of the footage showing the flow of water in RMNP.

Downtown where the rivers meet the water is lapping the bridge. We stopped right before the post office and walked East.

Overflowing the Banks

Further Down you can see some residences that built levees.

Better safe than sorry

It is wonderful to be close to the river, but this is too close for me.

View of the River

Here is the bridge by the post office.

Bridge right by Post Office

Another two minute video showing the Big Thompson River right before it meets the Fall River

With the weather heating up the visitors are flooding in as well. I have been busy fielding calls and showing property. There are bargains in every price range of Estes Park Real Estate so don’t hesitate to give me a call.

My husband, Alan, and his friend, Michael Hodges, ran up to the Alpine Visitor Center on May 19th before the road opened.  They drove to Rainbow Curve on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and parked there to start their run.  It is 17.25 miles round trip to the visitor center and back with 2000′ of elevation gain.  They did have to deviate from the road because of the snow removal operations going on. Here is a short video of some amazing snow I think you will enjoy

What is an Estes Park Snow Day?  Here it means that we have a foot of snow on the ground,  it’s still snowing and quite possibly the weatherman is going to be wrong, but we aren’t sure which way.  Last Wednesday was our first day of canceled school for the year.  You can check your calendars again, yes it was October.  I can never get my kids up in the morning, but at 7:30 am they were outside with me shoveling snow and for the rest of the day sledding and building forts.  Fortunately it stopped snowing that evening so we missed the 3 feet that was forecast.  Across the rest of the state it continued to snow that night and the next day with up to 2.5+ feet in some areas.

In Estes, we have our own little micro-climate.  We are completely surrounded by mountains and usually that works in our favor.  When big storms come through we almost always get less snow than the Front Range.  It was a regular work day for me so I headed to the office, later at the grocery store it was a social occasion I saw so many people I knew.  The snow didn’t keep most folks home.  There was school on Thursday, all the roads and paths were cleared.  The park department is so great usually the walking paths are cleared before the roads are.

walking path

I could have gone snowshoeing or hiking, but decided since it was so pleasant on Thursday I was going to take Haley for a run and we ended up at the dog park.  She loves the dog park and pulled me the last quarter mile.  When we got there she was so sad, there were no other dogs there. She really didn’t know what to do with no dogs to chase.

She loves the snow and dove into a snowbank on our way back.

snowbank

Mt. Olympus

Elk on 18 hole golf course

Well now as I write this almost a week later it was 60 degrees and breezy with beautiful blue skies. Other than the January winds there is not much that keeps us inside. Please visit us in the winter, you will be not be disappointed!

There is nothing more beautiful than newly fallen snow! Nothing!! Here is the view off my deck on Monday.

Unfortunately, I had to cover floor time that morning so I couldn’t enjoy our first snow of the year. I just grabbed my camera on my way out and drove to work with my windows open and heated seat on (of course). Here are some pics from my drive. The views were terrible.

After work yesterday I had to drive by a house and saw a huge herd of elk. This guy was digging or something with his antlers and grass was flying everywhere. He finally plopped down in the hole as I drove away. The next elk I saw had rolled in mud and he was totally covered. That will surely attract the ladies.

Have a great day!

Lori