Angela – Page 10 – Globitrotter

Hiking in Grand Teton National Park

After visiting an over crowded Yellowstone it was nice coming to Grand Teton where it was easier to escape the crowds. Although some places were also here very popular, like Inspiration point.

The second day in Grand Teton we decided to do a proper hike. I thought we had decided that anything more than 25 km was a too long day hike. But somehow we ended up hiking a loop that was totally 32 km and with an elevation gain of about 1800 m. Surprisingly it went very well. I was still fresh after 25 km and it was only the last few km that were hard. For some reason it is always the last few km no matter how long the hike was. I am guessing there are two reasons we so easily walked over 30 km. First reason is that the maximum elevation was only 10700 feet and not over 14000 feet that we are used to from Colorado. Second reason is that the views were amazing, this is the kind of hike that just makes you happy. We passed small lakes, high mountains, wild animals and everything was surrounded with an incredible amount of wild flowers. It was just so beautiful everywhere.

Here are images from our Grand Teton stay.

Once we got down I was pretty tired though and it was nice to have some dinner along Jackson Lake in the evening sun.

Yellowstone

I do understand why so many visit Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It is a very beautiful area that features the highest concentration of geysers in the world, many exciting wild animals and incredible views. Everything is also very convenient and you do not have to walk very far from your car to see it all. This makes it a handy place to visit for families and people that might not be very fit for different reasons.

Unfortunately as we were there it was over crowded, it was difficult to find parking spaces and it was hard to move around in your own pace. Since we are not very fond of mass tourism we got a bit stressed and did not stay long in the park.

We did not see any bears or wolves but we did catch a glimpse of bison, elk and deer. Some of our photos you can see below.

To hike a 14er

By now we have been on the peak of half of the 55 14ers in Colorado. You might wonder why we have to climb that many. Once you have hiked a few you get hooked and want more. Although they are all about the same height they are all different. The hike itself can be easy walking or partly technical climbing. There are usually several ways up a 14er and we have chosen both easy and harder routes. The harder ones are the favorites since they feature less people and more fun. The view is different on each peak even if they sometimes are very close to each other. Sometimes there are green rolling hills around, sometimes rugged ridges and rock faces. The crowd is always different, you might be alone on the peak or trying to find a spot to sit down among dozens of people.

Below is a photo album from this years adventures in Colorado.

Since there are many thunderstorms in the mountains this time of year it takes some planning to avoid getting stuck on a peak when lightning strikes. According to our experience the clouds starts forming around 10 am and usually the first rain starts somewhere between 12 and 2 pm. We do not like hiking in rain so naturally to avoid it we get up very early in the morning to make it to the top when the sky is still blue and start heading down when we see small fluffy clouds that in no time will transform into dark rain clouds. This means that for a longer hike where more peaks are combined or there is a very long approach we start hiking before 4 am. Just after 5 am it is light enough to hike without a head lamp and usually the first part of the hike is not so difficult to find. Another good thing about starting early is that it is cool and very nice hiking temperature. For easier hikes we might not start until between 6 and 7 am.

On the trail as the sun is rising. (Mt Bierstadt)

The weather seem to be something that people does not care much about until they are in it. We are usually among the first ones on the trail. Does people not read the weather report? Have they not seen what the weather has been like the past weeks? It is always the same according to our experience. On basically every peak most people will barely make it to the top to get a good look at the view before the clouds roll in. These people will most probably get caught in the rain coming down but will at least be off the peak before the thunderstorms hit. Then there is always the guy we call the 11 o’clock man (or woman). Usually this is one person hiking alone who starts heading up the mountain around 11 am as we are almost down again. He will definitely not make to the top before it starts raining and will have to turn around without even reaching the peak unless he wants to risk getting hit by lightning. This must be very frustrating, going through so much for nothing. We are equally fascinated every time.

It is very obvious which are the popular peaks and not. On a few peaks we have been alone, maybe meeting a few people on the way, and on other there have been crowds. The popular ones are naturally those where you can reach a trailhead with a normal 2wd car and still do not have to hike too far. It is amazing though what people put their 2wd’s through to reach a trailhead. We saw one very sporty car, probably even lower than the original model, on a very obvious 4wd trailhead. He must have damaged his car driving to and from this trailhead. Is it worth it?

One of the more popular peaks, Grays Peak.

Clothing is another interesting thing. I think it is quite cold on a 14er, the wind is usually strong and the air cold. I could not make it without long pants and long sleeves, usually a windstopper on top of a long sleeved and a short sleeved merino wool shirt. The most Americans though are wearing short (for girls usually very short) pants and often tank tops or t-shirts. My body would scream and refuse to work if I would wear that. I can not possibly hike fast enough to warm my body during these conditions. Maybe on the peak they will put a thin wind jacket on before they hurry down again after taking the obligatory peak photos. It was very obvious as we were hiking Mt Shavano. A lady started just after us and had about the same pace. As the sun came out we stopped to put on sun block on our faces and put on a extra jacket because we were now above the tree line and the temperature had dropped and the wind was chilly. She stopped at the same time, also to put sun block on but she also took her jacket off and zipped off her pants! Does the American bodies work differently or are we just incredibly cold??

The summary is that we can only warmly recommend hiking 14ers in Colorado. It is a beautiful and friendly area with peaks that will fit everybody.

Downtown Denver

After a bit more than a week of hiking in the mountains we treated ourselves to a couple of nights in downtown Denver. Last year we also visited Denver but stayed a bit outside of town in a crappy motel. Then I promised myself that next time we come here we will stay in a nice hotel downtown. We both like this city very much, it has everything we were missing in Phoenix. It has a very nice city center with an abundance of restaurants, cafés and shops.

After some research I found a boutique hotel called the Magnolia just one block off the 16th Street pedestrian mall. The hotel is located in an old bank building built in 1910 and they have kept some of its old style. There is a free bus going up and down 16th Street so it is very easy to get to any restaurant or shop of your choice.

Everything we needed was included, breakfast and wifi. Parking was unfortunately additional like any other nice downtown hotel. There was a parking garage just next door which was better deal than using the hotel valet parking. A bonus though was the complimentary wine and beer in the early evening and the late evening milk and cookies (!).

The room was very spacious with a kitchen, living room and bedroom. The bedroom even had a walk-in closet. Basically it was probably bigger than my apartment in Stockholm…

We can warmly recommend this hotel which made our stay in Denver a very enjoyable one. We spent a couple of days just enjoying the hotel and the fact that we could walk to everything we needed.

10 14ers in 6 hiking days

It might sound better than it is. We actually did 10 peaks in 9 days of which 3 were resting days and 6 hiking days. That means we did 3 peaks one day, 2 peaks 2 days and 1 peak 3 days. It was our goal to do another 10 14ers this year, like we did last year. However, when we have read our guide book a bit more carefully we found a few peaks that just sound like fun so we decided to aim for another 8 peaks. That will bring us up to a total of 28 peaks and just about half of the 55 14ers in Colorado. I believe we will be content with that for now and have to come back for the rest of them another time.

We believe that we are making a pretty good job climbing these 14ers. Most people that we have talked to hike maybe one or two a year or so. But there are also those who are quite extreme. One guy we have read about did all 55 peaks in 10 days!! He trained for years and had a crew of 6 or so people supporting him during this time. He was also true to the 3000 feet rule which we have not been. This means that for one hike to count you have to climb at least 3000 feet for each peak. We have not done this since some peaks are close to each other and you do not have to loose that much altitude to reach the next peak. We are also willing to use our car in any way to make it easier. Our goal is just to reach all summits at some point. We will probably try and do the rest of the peaksduring a longer holiday in a few years.

So far this year we have hiked Mt Sneffels, Blanca, Ellingwood, Missouri, Oxford, Belford, Huron, Shavano, Tabeguache and Massive.

Mt Sneffels was the easy first peak. We could drive up to over 12000 feet which made it an easy hike.

Blanca and Ellingwood were hard because of the very long approach along a 4×4 road. But the peaks were nice and had some fun scrambling at the end. Also the last part of the hike was nice along a number of lakes.

Missouri, Oxford and Belford were 3 peaks in one day and this was a hard one because of the length and elevation gain. After Missouri we had to drop quite a lot in elevation before we could make it up towards Oxford. It was about as long as Blanca and Ellingwood but even more elevation gain.

The view from Mt Missouri as the sun is rising.

The ridge over to Mt Belford from Mt Oxford.

Mt Huron, which we did the day after, was like a rest day. Short and easy hike, beautiful grassy slopes and a nice view from the top. I would definately recommend this one for a first 14er.

The nice trail up Mt Huron.

Shavano and Tabeguache we climbed together. It was a fairly easy hike but also quite boring. A lot of it was in the forest that seemed endless. Shavano has a pretty cool peak and the hike along its ridge towards Tabeguache was fun. The drive up to the trail head was also very nice.

The sun is rising as we are hiking up Mt Shavano.

On Mt Shavano.

The view towards north from Mt Tabeguache.

Mt Massive was interesting. We chose to climb the south west slopes because we could drive to the trailhead with our car. This way is shorter but steeper than the standard way. This particular day we were happy to have chosen this way because of the traffic on the standard trail. As we reach the top there was a group of about 10 there which left a few minutes after we got there. From the top we could see the standard route and the amount of people coming up. After a little while a teenager reaches the top and says he is the first of a group of about 50 (!) coming up. This was the time to leave and head back down before the rain clouds came in. Mt Massive is the second highest 14er and very close to Leadville which is a popular place to stay. It was obvious how much more popular this peak is although there are so many other peaks in the area.

On our 20th peak, Mt Massive.

Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point – long and exhausting

Our second 14er attempt was to climb Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point. These two are just next to each other and therefore easy to do in one day. The problem here is that it is a very long hike to get to the peaks at all. There is a 4×4 road but unfortunately the hardest in Colorado and should only be attempted with heavily modified vehicles. We were able to get up to about 8800 feet with our FJ and therefore having another 5500 feet to climb and a 24 km round trip hike.

Since there are thunderstorms in the afternoon we had to start before 4 am to be sure to make it off the peaks before the clouds come in.

One of the lakes we passed as the sun is slowly rising.

At 9 am we were at the first peak. I was exhausted and was seriously thinking about skipping Ellingwood. But we had met a guy on the way up and we could see how he quite quickly made it over to Ellingwood. The sky was still blue and after some sandwiches and snacks I was happy again. It was not as bad as it looked to hike the ridge over to Ellingwood where we stayed for a little while. We saw some clouds building up and since we knew we had a long way back to the car it was time to leave. At 11 am we left the peak and made it back to the car just after 2 pm just before it started to rain. Good timing!

View from Blanca Peak and the ridge we came up.

Enjoying Ellingwood Point.