Estes Cone Dayhike

      What a great day – sunny and 70 degrees in Loveland, CO. When we got to the parking lot at the Longs Peak Ranger Station we fully expected to see Eddie pacing around the parking lot (im)patiently waiting. But we were perplexed when we didn’t recognize his car. We joked that he was probably up on the trail and would be sitting on the summit when we got there.

      After waiting for a bit, we started hiking and signed in on the Trail Register at 9:55 am. About ¼ mile up the trail this guy comes around a corner and we all thought “that looks like Eddie” and sure enough it was. His comment was “You guys didn’t wait long” We laughed and said, “Man, we waited almost an hour!”. The dork had never fixed his hiking watch for the time change two weeks earlier. After laughing at him for a few minutes, he headed back to the car to get more water (he’d hiked partway up to Chasm Lake after arriving at the trailhead around 7:00, 6:00 on his watch) and we proceeded onward planning to wait for him at the Eugenia Mine site. The Eugenia Mine is set in a really pretty section of woods right alongside the “Inn Brook”. Remains of an old cabin are beside the trail along with hitching posts for horses. An old boiler remains upstream. I’d like to return here to explore the area more. Eddie caught up with us and we proceeded along to Moore Park.

      The snowpack has started to melt off significantly, even in the trees. In open areas, like Moore Park its simply gone. Lots of places in the trail were bare while others still had several feet of snow cover, some of which would support you but now and then would let one leg plunge to the ground leaving you looking like “Dorf Hiker”. Moore Park offers great views of the mountains around you, Longs Peak, Estes Cone, Mt. Lady Washington and others. Soon after leaving the clearing of Moore Park, the trail again climbs, bound for Storm Pass. The ground starts becoming rockier and slightly steeper as well.

      Beyond Storm Pass, the trail begins a series of switchbacks up fairly steep terrain to make the summit. The volume of rocks on this section of trail would lead one to believe they were hiking in Pennsylvania if they didn’t know better. Now marked with cairns you can start to see the top and finally you burst out onto a flat rocky area with bristlecone pine and the summit crown. A quick scramble up the summit crown yields views in all directions. The town of Estes Park lies to the North, Cub Lake was starting to melt to the North West, the Continental Divide forms the horizon with the snow line clearly visible to the West. Various features of Longs Peak are easily seen here as are the double peaks of Twin Sisters. We spent about 30 minutes taking pictures and admiring the view before beginning the hike back to the car.

      More info and stuff about Estes Cone can be found at summitpost.org

The Continental Divide - View from Estes Cone Summit