Somehow Chris and I forgot that we hiked the Storm Pass Trail last year in June. We did the same hike today starting from Lily Lake outside of Estes Park. The trail started with a little bit of incline and then a decline in elevation down to the forest floor, over a bridge and then the long climb up to the top of the Storm Trail.
We hiked for a couple of hours until we stopped for lunch at the intersection of the Storm Trail and the Estes Cone after 1,300 feet of elevation gain. The Estes Cone is another 7/10 of a mile from there but much more elevation gain. We opted to skip it.
The rain started here and we pulled out our rain jackets and backpack covers. It sprinkled off and on down the mountain. Actually, it was nice to have the cloud cover through most of the day.
Instead of turning around and hiking back down to our car in the Lily Lake parking lot, Chris suggested we keep on going down to the Bear Lake parking area on the other side of the mountain. So we did. It was another 4.5 miles downhill where we finally reached the Sprague Lake shuttle bus stop.
The path down to the Sprague Lake was frequented by lots of horse tours and was full of horse poop. The smell was not so awesome.
Since we didn't know when the shuttle would come, we continued walking to the Shuttle parking area for the Bear Lake Corridor.
Nine miles! And my body felt it.
We only had to wait for 15 minutes for the Hiker Shuttle to take us back to the Visitor Center in Estes Park. The rain started in earnest once we settled into our seats on the bus for the half hour ride.
From there, Chris scheduled an Uber for a ride back to Lily Lake.
Another hiking adventure.
We are sure going to miss Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. We love these mountains. Instead of day trips, we will have to schedule weekend getaways to Estes Park once we move.