Today was day 3 past the end of my official residency time here, and day 3 of tent camping. This was the day for Chasm Lake, which is in
Longs Peak's cirque. Ideally, one would start the hike a few hours
before sunrise to catch the spectacular alpenglow on Longs. I wasn't
feeling up to that after these past two weeks of physical effort, so slept in until 6am and then got up and going.
The trail is 8.5+ miles round trip, with some serious altitude gain.
The overall gain is something around 2,500 feet, but that number does
not describe the decent down alongside of Peacock Pool toward
Columbine Falls where one then has to scramble up by the falls and
regain the lost elevation, adding quite a bit to the overall ascent.
Well worth it though, spectacular lake, unbelievable view of Longs
from the base of the diamond. I had to look up the elevation change
from the lake to the peak, which is almost 2,500 feet. From the
lake, the perspective is deceptive and it's hard to tell whether the
peak is vastly enormous or whether that's an illusion. It is, in
fact, tremendously huge. With my late-ish start, I ended up
fantastically lucky and the rain held off until after 3pm, starting
just as I returned to the trail head and ranger station. The station has
great photographs and maps of Longs Peak, and is well worth a stop.
I would really like to come back and make the climb to the peak some
day, with the right companions.
Hiking in along Alpine Brook |
Approaching tundra |
View down Alpine Brook |
Footbridge over Alpine Brook |
Entering tundra |
View west towards Ft Collins and Boulder. |
The trail up. |
Last of the krummholz |
Longs Peak and the trail split for Chasm Lake and the keyhole route to the peak. |
Trail up towards Chasm Lake |
Enormous cairn, I'm guessing this may be one of the historic cairns from many decades ago. |
Room with a view: the privy |
The trail to Chasm Lake, Peacock Pool visible |
More trail |
Getting closer, good view of Peacock Pool and, if you really try, the falls around center frame. |
Columbine Falls and behind the glacial shelf containing Chasm |
Closeup on the falls |
Peacock Pool and Roaring Fork below |
Above the falls, Ships Prow and the glacial shelf, also Longs Peak at top right |
The scramble portion of the hike |
Looking back from the scramble, privy and NPS storage hut (where they keep gear for Longs Peak rescues) |
Chasm panorama, a little fuzzy due to poor lighting. |
Looking back from the trail out. |
Trail junction, looking back towards Longs and Chasm |
Interesting trees on the hike out. |
And one more. |