Flattop mountain

Early this morning I drove to the end of Bear Lake road in RMNP. By early I mean I pulled in at 6:15 am. The lots along Bear Lake road fill quickly, so if you're not an early riser the free shuttle is your best bet to reach the Bierstadt Lake, Glacier Gorge and Bear Lake trailheads.

My destination was Flattop mountain, which sits 4.4 miles and 2850 vertical feet above Bear Lake. It was cool and breezy at Bear Lake, and since clouds were rolling over Flattop I decided to wear long pants and a long sleeve shirt. Good call -- in fact, gloves would have been nice above treeline.

The trail maintains a moderate grade, and it provides great views of Longs Peak, Chiefs Head and other summits. You can also peer down at Emerald Lake.

Near treeline wildflowers were awesome, particularly columbines.

Above timberline the trail crosses a middling size snowfield, which was easy enough since the snow was soft and the slope was gentle. Flattop was in the clouds, so there wasn't much to see other than beautiful, desolate looking tundra. I continued past the marker for .3 miles to reach the junction with the N. Inlet and Tonahutu trails. These trails form a 30-mile loop from Grand Lake on the west side of RMNP to the Divide and back. I did this loop back in 1986, so it's been 30 years since I've seen this junction.

After hiking down I improvised a loop hike which included Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, Lake Haiyaha, the Loch and Alberta falls. This was an easy route, and I thought about extending it to see other lakes. But although it was partly sunny I didn't want to risk getting caught in an early afternoon T-storm. Here's one of the Loch:

In all I got in 16 miles and 3900' elevation gain.