Rocky Mountain National Park (with Claire) :)

Well hello there

Claire and I decided to get out to Rocky Mountain National Park for her birthday weekend. I was able to score 2 nights for Lake Verna at the end of the East Inlet Trail. It’s a gorgeous area of the park that extends inward (east) from Grand Lake into the heart of the Rockies. It is about a 7 mile hike one way with some serious elevation gain, with the lake at 10,255 ish feet.

Our plan was to leave the house at 6 and get the by 9am to start hiking. Unfortunately there was a rock slide on highway 40 so we had to pick an alternate driving route. This was actually a blessing because even though it took 2 hrs longer, we were able to enter the park from the Estes Park side and drive up and over the Continental Divide to get down to our trailhead. What a beautiful detour! 

We even saw our first moose in the wild!! 

After driving up and over the park we were soon at our trailhead! We hit the trail around 11:30 and it was MUCH hotter than we were expecting if we had been there at 9:30. The scenery was amazing though and we felt good in our brand new shoes+ insoles and gaiters! 

I’m rocking size 13 Altra Timp 5’s with “Trippy” Dirty Girl Gaiters. Claire is sporting size 10.5 Altra Lonepeak 8’s with “What does the fox say” Dirty Girl Gaiters

Raging river near Adams Falls

We saw a Mama moose and calf in the first meadow!

Up and up we climbed! 

Favorite picture of the day

After the Gorgeous meadow, we kept climbing and climbing through breathtaking waterfalls and unique trail work that make this East Inlet Trail one of a kind! 

Lone Pine Lake

After passing Lone Pine Lake, we were excited to get up to our campsite for the next two nights at Lake Verna. It’s the farthest campsite into the East Inlet Trail. There were more awesome water features and cool trail sections along the way.

Looking back at Lone Pine Lake

Lake Verna!! 

It had called for afternoon thunderstorms, and we were SO blessed that it stayed nice and clear. We couldn’t have asked for better luck! We wanted to hang out and explore the beautiful lake but we didn’t want to push our luck so we set up our tent ASAP! 

They don’t make this tent anymore! 

Love our Big Agnes Flycreek UL3

After we were all set up we continued around our lake and explored a tad. We walked to the far East side of the lake where I had heard there was a sandy beach. But the water level was high and the mosquitos were vicious so we turned back around. 

Back at camp we cooked up way too much food and escaped to our tent just before sundown to avoid the hoard of bloodsucking mosquitos. Mosquitos are the bane of our existence, and unfortunately up at Lake Verna they were present all day. If we weren’t hiking at a quick pace or hanging out in the tent, they were upon us. 

Two shots of lake reflections around 6pm on that first day. The lake was so serene.

The next morning it was overcast and gray when I got out of bed early to go take a sunrise picture over the lake, but I still caught this cool reflection at 6am before retreating back into the tent until around 9:30.

After a little more rain and a lot more mosquito-dreading, we got up and made some breakfast by the lake. We then stashed all our food into a bear canister that I borrowed from my old REI coworker, and headed out to explore even further East on the unmaintained trail past Verna lake.

Thanks Tyler! 

Claire slack-packing (no tent parts or sleeping bag or pad or sleep clothes, just some rain gear and snacks for the day hike)

The sandy beach on the far East side of the lake

The trail around the lake was tedious and trying, as the lake was full and swollen from snowmelt early season. Surprisingly, once we passed the lake the trail was in great shape for being unmaintained! There were even recent chainsaw cuts from blowdowns. We came across a stunning meadow at third lake and Claire summoned her inner Julie Andrews.

The hills are alive…

Fourth Lake with the high back wall of the valley in the background

After the fourth lake we climbed alongside a pretty high alpine stream towards the back of the valley. Our plan was to get up and over to the high fifth lake tucked up way up at over 12,000 feet.

As we climbed higher and higher, we heard some thunder start to rumble close by and a really dark cloud start to move in. We talked about a plan briefly and decided it was best we head back into tree line and back towards camp. We stopped to take a picture at the high point we reached.

Way up!!!

Weird picture I know but to the right of my finger you can see Verna lake where our camp was set up.

I love this woman 

Tut tut… looks like rain

We turned around and headed back down towards the lower lakes. We’re glad we did because as we were approaching the middle lakes the wind started picking up. We stopped to put on our rain gear (mainly for mosquitos) and right when we continued hiking from that stop we got hit with rain! 

Sunny up top

Rainy back at the lakes

On the way back down Claire slipped off a root and twisted her ankle pretty bad. We knew it was a long hike back out the next day, so we decided to take our time carefully in the rain back to camp to avoid any further injury and just take it easy for the afternoon. We cooked and ate in the rain (and cold). And unfortunately the mosquitos remained… 

Tasty stuff from Fire Pot

At about 6pm the clouds rolled out and there were blue skies again! 

Love the calm after a storm :)

As usual, the mosquitos came out in FULL FORCE just after the rain stopped so once again we retreated to our tent pretty early. When we were throwing some gear into the tent a big hole was ripped in the mesh. I was not that bummed since gear is bound to get used and abused overtime. The real worry was that all the mosquitos could make it in now! Claire and I had to think quick! 

Ah much better… nothing some smartwool socks can’t fix!! 

We slept really hard that night and we were hoping for clear skies the next morning to hike out. Unfortunately the weather got pushed back by a day and we had rain all night and into the morning. Claire woke up on her birthday to go get some breakfast and coffee and immediately after she left the tent it hailed on her! 

Nothing like a little Birthday Hail…

The morning sort of sucked. We were very cold and wet and we won’t talk about it much, haha. However, as we made it further down the trail the weather got nice again and we had a pleasant second half of the exit trail! I didn’t take any pictures on this day except for the hail and this last one I’ll leave you with. Thanks for following along on my practice post for the Colorado Trail. I’m starting in about 2.5 weeks, stay tuned! 

The only other picture I took on the last day..

“A Poop With a View”