Boulder County Wandering
  • Home
  • Climate Change and Colorado Wildfires
  • Trip Reports
  • Skills/Gear
    • Intro, External Sources and Misc.
    • Food and Water
    • Shelters
    • Backpacks
    • Sleeping
    • Clothing
    • Winter Camping
    • A Shoe Odyssey
    • Foot Care
    • Maps, Navigation and Weather
    • Off-Trail Route Planning
    • The Perfect Headlight/Flashlights?
    • Misc Small Stuff
    • Photography/Camera
    • Gear Repair and MYOG
  • Places
    • Flatirons
    • Rocky Mountain National Park
    • Indian Peaks Wilderness
    • Lost Creek Wilderness
    • Gore Range
    • Glacier National Park
    • Wind River Range
    • Utah
  • Plants and Wildlife
  • Contact
  • To Do
  • About

TriP Reports

Comanche Peaks Wilderness and Northern RMNP (Colorado)

6/3/2018

3 Comments

 
Trip date: June 02-03, 2018
Picture
This is a 2 day trip in the Commanche Peaks Wilderness and Northern Boundary of RMNP.  I had planned a loop starting at the Emmaline TH near the CSU Pingree Mountain Campus but I was unsure how much snow to expect so I didn't know how far I'd get.  Except for brief deep snow on the initial approach towards the treeline below Fall Mt and in the shaded Mirror Lake cirque, the whole trip was largely snow free.  
​
I also stumbled across the Tom Bennet campground near the TH which I'd heard about before.  It would be a great place to car camp with great views a short walk away.  

Caltopo map here: caltopo.com/m/P92V
Picture

Day 1

Picture
Picture
Picture
I didn't know it at the time but I was looking at the horrible shortcut I'd pick the next day (steep talus followed by very slow bushwhacking).
Picture
Picture
Picture
This guy kept meandering towards me while I had my shoes off and was checking maps. I yelled at him quite a bit and he eventually got the message and went the other way. Shortly before this he fell on his ass on that small slope on the hill behind him. It was hilarious.
Picture
Picture
Looks like the high elevation areas in the Lost Creek Wilderness
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The principle targets on the first day: Fall Mt. and Commanche Peak.
Picture
Picture
Approach to Commanche Peak from Fall Mt.
Picture
Looking down to Emmaline Lake
Picture
Looking towards the Mummy Range on the way up Commanche Peak.
Picture
Picture
Picture
First views into the cirque containing Mirror Lake and Mt. Ikoko (center).
Picture
Descent path off into the Mirror Lake cirque. It was pretty rough but not too bad.
Picture
Looking into the Mummy Range (center left) and along Trail Ridge (right) just before dusk.
Picture
Specimen Mt. in the Never Summer Range at dusk. (This is the far right hand side of the above photo).

Day 2

Picture
I left the bug net at home since the overnight temperatures in the Mirror Lake cirque were going to be in the low 30's. My feet appear to have largely escaped overnight (slightly exaggerated by getting out of sleeping bag but not much).
Picture
The Mummy Range at dawn.
Picture
A variant of the opening photo, this one including some of the Mummy Range as well.
Picture
This was the only time I was glad I brought microspikes for my shoes.
Picture
The Never Summer Range in the NW corner of RMNP
Picture
One last view of Mt. Ikoko and Mirror Lake
Picture
OK. One more. The red brush would feature prominently in the next few miles.
Picture
From here I'd loosely follow the trajectory of Mummy Creek and eventually move towards Icefield Pass between Skull Point and Rowe Mt. 
Picture
It's just the three of us out here. Where's the water you don't poop in?
Picture
One nice thing about travel in big mountains is that it's often fairly straightforward to scout your route from miles away. I would cross Mummy Creek and move up the base of Rowe Mt. To avoid the sagebrush (the dark region between the small snowfields) I'd move along the base of the Rowe Mt.
Picture
Picture
Looking northeast along Mummy Creek. Fall Mt. is on the left.
Picture
Picture
A closer view of the brush I wanted to avoid.
Picture
This game trail that ran straight through the brush sucked me in like a magnet. It was so worn I had to double check my maps that there wasn't supposed to be an official trail. Unfortunately the quality eventually deteriorated and I had to bail and head for the base of Rowe Mt. as I originally planned.
Picture
So this is why my shoe kept filling up with dirt. Gaiters won't help this...
Picture
Looking down from Icefield Pass onto the North Fork of the Big Thompson River. Lost Lake is the most well known lake in this cirque.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Looking back towards Fall Mt on the approach to Ramsey Peak.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Descending off of Ramsey Peak. This doesn't look too bad right?
Picture
Eventually gets pretty steep. The worst part was the bushwhacking below this. Easily my hardest yet.
Picture
Crossing the un-named fork of the South Fork of Cache la Poudre River. Yes, that's a fork-in-a-fork.
Picture
Picture
Picture
3 Comments
David E.
6/10/2018 05:01:29 pm

Enjoyed the pictures and commentary very much. A moose that fell on his caboose !! Lovely mountains and apparently very much empty land to enjoy. Empty except for the mountains, animals, trees, snow, rocks and lakes. I was intrigued by rock that stood straight up as though early man had placed it to mark a significant spot.

Reply
Susan K
6/12/2018 01:57:06 pm

Looks like you might want to always carry an extra pair of shoes!

Our book has a chapter dealing with the Pingree Park Campus of CSU and a family cemetery there. If you're interested, I can send you a PDF.

Susan

Reply
Walt Fricke
8/2/2022 12:54:06 am

What does the picture just before "Descending off of Ramsey Peak" etc show? Rugged mountains in the distance. Never Summers? I knew RMNP pretty well, kept trying to fit those into what I knew, but couldn't. Rawahs, maybe? Never hiked in there.

50 plus years ago I hiked from Long Lake almost to Mirror Lake, hoping to scope out the cliffs at the head of the cirque for rock climbing possibilities. Misjudged length of drive from Boulder and hike to the lake - saw cliffs in distance and had to turn back, as an overnight trip wasn't in the plan. I don't climb rocks any more, but old goals are always somewhere, even if just in memory and imagination.

It seems no one has reported climbing the Mirror Lake face that I can find. Might not be worth the hike anyway. This was got me looking at your fine photos, and scratching my head over the one I mention.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Travis Briles

    Subscribe

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Categories

    All
    2017
    2018
    2019
    2020
    Backpacking
    Big Bend National Park
    Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness
    Boulder
    Boulder Foothills
    Boulder OSMP
    Boulder Reservoir
    BURL
    Bushwhack
    Cache La Poudre Wilderness
    California
    Calwood Fire
    Canyonlands National Park
    Car Camping
    Colorado
    Colorado National Monument
    Colorado Trail
    Comanche Peaks Wilderness
    Coulson Gulch
    Day Hike
    Desolation Wilderness
    Eldorado Canyon
    Estes Park
    Fairview Peak
    Flatirons
    Glacier Gorge
    Glacier National Park
    Golden
    Golden Gate Canyon State Park
    Goosenecks State Park
    Gore Range
    Grand Junction
    Grand Teton National Park
    Great Sand Dunes National Park
    Gross Reservoir
    Hall Ranch
    Hawaii
    Heil Valley Ranch
    High Route
    Indian Peaks Wilderness
    Island In The Sky
    James Peak Wilderness
    Jefferson County Open Space
    Lake Tahoe
    Lefthand Canyon
    LIGANN Traverse
    Lost Creek Wilderness
    Lyons
    Mauna Loa
    Middle St. Vrain
    Mohling Traverse
    Montana
    Monument Valley
    Mt Evans Wilderness
    Mummy Range
    Natural Bridges National Monument
    Needles District
    Never Summer Wilderness
    North Table Mountain
    NYC
    Off Trail
    Off-trail
    Palo Duro Canyon
    Pfiffner Traverse
    Rabbit Mountain
    Ralph Price Reservoir
    Rawah Wilderness
    RMNP
    Sangre De Cristo
    Scramble
    Scrambling
    Snowshoeing
    Snowy Range
    South Platte
    St. Vrain
    Ten Mile Range
    Texas
    Urban
    Utah
    Valley Of The Gods
    Vasquez Wilderness
    Walker Ranch
    White Ranch Open Space
    Wild Basin
    Wild Basin High Route
    Wildfire
    Wind River Range
    Winiger Ridge
    Winter
    Winter Backpacking
    Winter Camping
    Wyoming
    Year In Review
    Yellowstone National Park

    RSS Feed


Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Climate Change and Colorado Wildfires
  • Trip Reports
  • Skills/Gear
    • Intro, External Sources and Misc.
    • Food and Water
    • Shelters
    • Backpacks
    • Sleeping
    • Clothing
    • Winter Camping
    • A Shoe Odyssey
    • Foot Care
    • Maps, Navigation and Weather
    • Off-Trail Route Planning
    • The Perfect Headlight/Flashlights?
    • Misc Small Stuff
    • Photography/Camera
    • Gear Repair and MYOG
  • Places
    • Flatirons
    • Rocky Mountain National Park
    • Indian Peaks Wilderness
    • Lost Creek Wilderness
    • Gore Range
    • Glacier National Park
    • Wind River Range
    • Utah
  • Plants and Wildlife
  • Contact
  • To Do
  • About