We left for the mountains before sunrise. With a sparse 2020 now behind us, we were anxious to get outside and start making 2021 a brighter year. Looking at forecasts and trail conditions, we decided that brighter year would be best begun at Rocky Mountain National Park, specifically the hike to Mills Lake near the Estes Park entrance.

It was predicted to be a cold, but manageable, day in the park. However what we, and our weather apps, hadn’t accounted for was the howling winds hitting the mountains that day. After parking at the trailhead we scrambled to get layers on as we were buffeted about and chilled to the bone. Getting off of the exposed asphalt, onto the trail, and into the trees helped marginally. Thankfully the trail had been well-traveled since the last snow, and we warmed ourselves by moving forward as quickly as we could on the initial incline.

The progress we made on body temperature while hiking was cut back every time we passed out of tree cover. There were several of these intermissions, but they were made worthwhile by the views of the snow-shrouded peaks surrounding the valley.

The trail forked several times, but the way forward was well marked in each case. The only real pathfinding challenge arose, surprisingly, in the areas with scarce snow. In these places any footprints in the snow were filled in by the blowing snow just seconds after being made. In deeper snow, the trod down route of the trail remained highly distinct and easily followed, even when individual footprints were buried.

Ascending the valley, the views became more majestic as the altitude brought more of the surroundings to bare. Air which was thick with clouds of blowing snow made more distant summits difficult to spot, and some of the photographs in this post were taken on the less blustery descent. One of the intermittently visible mountains was Taylor Peak, which ghosted into view only briefly beyond the crags of the Continental Divide.

To our initial delight, but eventual chagrin, the trail leveled out significantly in the final lead up to Mills Lake. The hiking became easier of course, but the fact that our muscles were no longer working as hard meant that our body temps dipped fast. The motor controls on Skyler’s camera had started to succumb to the temperature about a mile into the hike, and at this point our motor controls were starting to do the same. We picked up pace.

Rounding a copse of crooked pines, Mills Lake came into view. Sights further up the valley, Longs Peak, Pagoda Peak, and the jagged Keyboard of the Winds connecting them, filled the sky. Gusts sluicing down the valley slopes cut across the crystal frozen water and straight through our last reserves of body heat. Another lake, Black Lake, was just a few more miles up the trail in the shadow of the Spearhead rock formation. Any other day and it would have been an exciting goal after Mills. Not this time though.

The rising sun did nothing to offset the chill, and we staggered our way back to the shore after only a little time on the ice. Skyler soldiered through a few more photographs but we were ultimately drawn away by the promise of a warm car.

We had encountered few people on our ascent, and Mills Lake itself had been barren of other hikers when we arrived there. However, our descent found us encountering many more people, and we had to stop frequently to step aside and pull our frozen face masks over our noses. The entire return being downhill, we still made excellent progress.

We arrived back at a crowded parking area full of others zipping up coats and putting on snow spikes. Piling into the car, we were grateful to be done with our day’s trek, and were excited to have our first adventure of 2021 completed. It had been about 6 miles of snow-swept hiking. We decided that for the next one, we should bring some more layers.

Thank you for reading!

~Ty & Sky