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| Hiking | 9.40 Miles |
2,075 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.40 Miles | 4 Hrs 35 Mns | | 2.17 mph |
| 2,075 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | After crawling in Denver traffic, having second breakfast in Loveland, driving on US-34 through picturesque Big Thompson Canyon and getting water and snacks in Estes Park I finally reached Deer Ridge junction at 14:20. That left me about 4 hours of daylight to hike and I decided to follow the plan and hike the loop to Deer Mountain and then back via Beaver Meadows. The whole workweek before this day there was winter weather in the park with substantial snowfall, so the trail above 9200' was covered with snow. Turned out that this trail was pretty popular and the snow was packed and slippery, but that couldn't stop me. Upon reaching the top I enjoyed views of Estes Park on one side and Moraine Park with Continental Divide in the background on another.
Then I went down the steps to the junction and continued on Deer Mountain trail following the sign to Estes Park. This part of trail was much more enjoyable. The snow was soft and provided good traction and as this part of trail is on south facing slope there was snow only above the top of switchbacks at 9600'. The only human that I met on this section was a trail runner who first ran up and then passed me on his way down, but here the mountain finally started to justify its name by sending mule deer herds toward the trail surroundings.
Turned right at the junction toward High Drive, reached first of the cabins and then followed the trail westbound along the bottom of Deer Ridge. The first part of it was easy to follow, but at some point it divided in two and the GPS track that I followed turned right, but the more obvious trail veered left, so I took it. It went to some other cabin and ended at the dirt road, so I tried to return to northern branch of the trail and found that from this point and mostly to the intersection with the Navy Hill Road (US-36) the trail was quite imaginary: it's better visible on the satellite image than on the ground. So I mostly went straight through the meadow in the general direction of GPS track.
After crossing the road I found the trail again and followed it to Beaver Brook where a single elk bull grazed and reluctantly stepped away from the trail to give me way. There it started to get dark, so I turned right, followed Upper Beaver Meadows Road north and then continued straight northwest on the moonlit trail along the ravine back to Deer Ridge junction accompanied by elk bugle sounds. When I reached trailhead I heard a group of some tardy park visitors going down the main trail from Deer Mountain with loud cell phone music 
The day ended with live music and a buffalo burger (it tasted like nothing  ) at Rock Inn Tavern. |
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