Due to me having to conserve leave for our upcoming wedding, we only had a few days for our winter getaway this year, and we wanted to have a more peaceful location to relax and get our semi-annual dose of mountains. Our friend Jenna grew up in Estes Park, Colorado, on the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), and told us that the throngs of tourists clear out in the winter. There are also no ski lifts nearby to bring in that crowd, so we decided to spend a few days doing some snowshoeing in RMNP.

But first we flew into Denver, where Sarah's parents took us, Sarah's Aunt Karen, and Sarah's brother, his wife, and two adorable kids to dinner and an Avalanche game. We had a great time (my first chance to meet my soon-to-be in-laws and niece and nephew), and cheered on the Avs as they squeaked out an exciting win in a shootout.

Addie was a big fan of riding on Uncle Dan's shoulders!

Addie, Sarah, and Sarah's mom Betty...three generations of silliness!

The next day we started off with a huge breakfast at a place that would have been packed in the summer but was almost empty this time of year. At the recommendation of a ranger, we decided against doing the Ute Trail up over the treeline, and started up a long climb to Lawn Lake.

Warm temps let us hike most of the day sans jackets!

We took a ton of pics of this big hare who sat there stoically guarding his burrow

We started off with a long climb along a river bed, starting with just hiking boots, then adding traction spikes, then throwing on the snowshoes as the snow deepened with elevation. After several hours, we finally broke out into some good views of Mummy Mountain and the rest of the peaks surrounding Lawn Lake.

Just upslope of this picture, the snow got really deep and the trail petered out. We didn't quite make it to the lake before we had to turn around. Even heading down when we did, it was full dark by the time we got back to the car.

That evening, we had to fulfill a key component of a Dan and Sarah vacation--visit a local craft brewery. The ratings for the Estes Park Brewery were subpar, but we found the Rock Cut Brewing Company right down the road. This was a new, small operation with a friendly taproom and some delicious and interesting brews. The Smoky Brunette and Black IPA were both fantastic!

The next day we headed up to the Bear Lake trailhead southwest of Trail Ridge Road. This trailhead leads to several canyons with hanging lakes just below the Continental Divide. We started out by heading to Dream Lake and Emerald Lake, then ascended up and over a steep ridge to Lake Haiyaha.

Emerald Lake, with some hikers trying vainly to ascent up the southern slope

The lovely Sarah hiking up the steep ascent from Dream Lake to Lake Haiyaha

Lake Haiyaha is known for the unusual ice formations that crop up around the rocks, but just a few were on display when we were there. Very high winds also kicked up a lot of snow there, and I had to keep my camera put away. Sarah did get some shots with her phone, though.

My topo map of RMNP had a trail marked from Haiyaha back to the trailhead, but as we had learned, NPS doesn't use any blazes on trees to mark trails, so in the winter snow, the "trail" was whatever the first and subsequent hikers after a fresh snowfall felt like making. As we descended from the lake, we had a multitude of different sets of tracks to follow, and had to navigate our way back to the car with topo and compass. We knew some weather was coming in, and wanted to beat it down the mountain. We also got to catch the end of the Broncos playoff win over the Pats with a fire and some rye back at the condo.

Probably my favorite shot of the weekend

We entered our third and final day with a couple more trails out of we still wanted to hit. We started out from Glacier Gorge trailhead near Bear Lake, and headed up toward The Loch. We realized when we got there that the "winter trail" hadn't climbed up a ridge and leveled off toward the mountain lake, but rather went up an ascending canyon straight to the end of the lake. It made for a fun climb at the end, with steep slopes of snow all around us!

After we crossed The Loch (walking on frozen lakes always makes me nervous, so we skirted along the shoreline), we veered south hoping to climb up toward Sky Pond. We made it to what would be Timberline Falls in the summer, but couldn't find a path up any higher that seemed prudent given our limited avy knowledge.

Looks like a good spot to turn around...

Shooting into the sun is supposed to be a photographic no-no, but this captured the lightly falling snow against the mountains

After deciding not to risk an ascent of the ledge you see on the left, we turned around and headed back toward the junction with Glacier Gorge trail. Back at The Loch, we captured a cool image of a ring in the ice that had formed around a boulder.

Along the Glacier Gorge trail, we climbed up another canyon to Mills Lake. The clouds parted and gave up views of The Spearhead further up the valley.

Sarah braces against the blowing snow flurries

We reached our turnaround time just past Jewel Lake. Just outside the park, we encountered a herd of elk grazing right by the road. I hopped out and took pictures until a buck started to stare at me in a very annoyed fashion. We had a really good dinner in town at Himalayan Curry and Kabob and had some Colorado brews a downtown bar.

We loved experiencing the park in the serenity of winter. When we live in Colorado, Sarah and I plan to take an avy class so we can get more adventurous in our winter hikes. In the meantime, this gave me a much needed cathartic dose of mountains and some time with my darling fiancee!

The Quieter Side of Rocky Mountain National Park