Deer Mountain

On Memorial Day we decided to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park and try out our new boots by hiking the Deer Mountain trail.  Stacie has always wanted to hike to the summit. 

The weather wasn’t looking great, but we thought we would have enough of a window between storms to get to the summit and back.  As we were heading up to RMNP, we could see the clouds sitting over the mountains, but unlike the past couple days the ceiling was much higher.  We could actually see the mountains above tree line, and most of them we could see all the way to the top.

The trailhead is at the intersection of CO-36 and CO-34 in Rocky Mountain National Park.  When we got there at 11 am there was just enough parking for the Hummer.  We did have to park on the opposite side of the road, however.  It was a typically late start for us.

The first half mile of the trail was wide and easy, and it opened up into a meadow on the side of the mountain in a grove of aspens with a great view of the park.  We saw a number of casual hikers and tourists on this section of the trail.  Shortly after this section the trail got serious, and we started climbing through a serious of steep switchbacks.

The first few switchbacks were still climbing through the meadow with the aspens.  After that we were surrounded by pine trees most of the time, with occasional outlooks at each end of a switchback.

This section of the trail was challenging with our current conditioning, but we were regularly rewarded with views of the park.  Every once in a while we could catch a glimpse of the parking area down at the trailhead, so we could watch it get smaller and smaller as we climbed.

After the first two miles the trail finally leveled out a little bit and got easier again.  At this point we were on the large flat area between the individual peaks.  This easy section continued for almost a mile before we got the the intersection with the turnoff for the summit.

 

 

The final leg of the trail is a tough climb up a set of rock steps.  It’s only a tenth of a mile long, but you have to climb about 180 vertical feet.

When we finally made it to the top the views were breathtaking.  I just managed to snap a single picture of Estes Park from the summit when the camera died.  I had already used the extra batteries in the GPS on the way up, so we had to juggle batteries around to get a set that worked.  Finally we were able to get some pictures of us on the summit:

We were originally planning on easting lunch on the summit, but as were were finishing up taking pictures and enjoying the views it started to rain.  After a minute or two it started to hail as well.  At that point we quickly got out our rain gear and started heading back down.  There were several other groups of hikers just hitting the summit at that point, but we wanted to get back down out of the hail and possible lightning. By the time we got back down to the intersection it was back to just plain rain. 

As we retraced our steps back down the mountain it continued to rain off and on for the next couple of miles.  Part way down the switchbacks we stopped in the shelter of a tree to eat a couple bars from my pack to keep us going.  Eventually the rain let up and we finally made it back to the trailhead.  Once we got down we got out lunch and ate sitting on the side of the Beaver Meadows trail, across the road from the Deer Mountain trailhead.

Our new boots did great, and we brought enough layers to stay comfortable through the changing weather.  This was a fun trail and we got to check off a hike that Stacie has always wanted to complete.

See all of the pictures: Photo Gallery

Trail Information:
Name: Deer Mountain Trail
Location: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Length: 6 miles round trip (to the summit and back)
Difficulty: Moderate
GPX file: Download
Map:
Elevation Profile: