It's getting a bit hot for hiking in Boulder, so this morning I headed up to Rocky Mountain park. My destination was the Twin Sisters, two 11400' peaks on the eastern edge of the park. Although these are not high peaks by RMNP standards they have "prominence," i.e. they are easy to spot even from Longmont:
All in all a fine early season hike. 7 miles, 2400' elevation gain. Virtually no wildflowers except for a few tiny pink blossoms of alpine ground cover. Interestingly I saw a chipmunk eating these flowers, so contrary to what I learned from Caddyshack some varmints apparently have sweet breath.
And more practically they are snow free earlier than higher destinations. This was my first time up Twin Sisters, and as expected the trail offers a great view of the towering east face of Longs Peak.
The lower part of the Twin Sisters trail was obliterated by the 2013 floods. A huge rock slide took out several switchbacks and mowed down thousands of trees. First photo is looking down the slope -- the gully is probably 30' deep. Second photo is of the top of the slide.
For now the trail has been rerouted to cross the slide area and then climb up through the trees on the southern side. It's still a work in progress. Eventually the trail climbs above timberline. There were a few patches of snow, but mostly the trail was dry and clear. At the saddle below south Sister there's a radio tower used for search & rescue, and on top of the peak I saw several markers.
All in all a fine early season hike. 7 miles, 2400' elevation gain. Virtually no wildflowers except for a few tiny pink blossoms of alpine ground cover. Interestingly I saw a chipmunk eating these flowers, so contrary to what I learned from Caddyshack some varmints apparently have sweet breath.
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