This trail unintentionally occupied two weekends of our summer. The first round was due to a Supper-sitter fail. If I remember right, we were going to Jenn's that evening and we needed a hike somewhat close to home. Being right outside of Allenspark made this trail a perfect 45 minute drive.
At shortly after 5:30am, we arrived at Chris' house worried that he hadn't answered the phone yet. I knocked like a cop serving a warrant, rang the doorbell like a madman and kept calling all to no avail. After 15 minutes of desperately hoping to leave Limbaugh there, I accepted reality and drove to the trail anyway. Supper was to have his first hike at six months old. That part was kind of cool, but I knew it meant a summit was not in our future that day.
With one main road and very few roads to turn on, finding the Ski Road in Allenspark is simple. It has a multitude of little wooden signs and a ski that makes up the road sign. Head south past the cabins and into national forest. There's a fork just after the forest boundary and the one on the right takes you to the trailhead. Plenty of parking and road width for more parking. It was a busy little area in the end.
The lot was empty around 6:30am when we geared up. Got the dogs ready and we just hit trail to see how far Supper-Pup would make it...
The first bit was in the shade of the valley...
Then the sun lit up the forest and the flowers were everywhere...
We just moseyed along taking in some views as we gained altitude. At around 2.5 miles in, Limbaugh was slowing rapidly. Being his first time working at altitude (10,500ish) we took a break then headed back...
Now for the summit trip:
Android Stats (Backcountry Navigator Pro):Total Distance: 8.54 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,610 feet
Min Elevation: 8,560 feet
Max Elevation: 12,162 feet
Total Time: 7hr 35min
The trail seemed much longer the second time. I think the heavier pack and warmer temps were big factors there. There was little snow on trail, and what was there was really condensed and easy to walk across. Not much further from where we turned back the week before, the first on trail views of Saint Vrain Mountain...
The saddle between Meadow and Saint Vrain mountains has a nicely framed view of Wild Basin in Rock Mountain National Park...
Since the dogs were present we had to hook left at the park boundary. This goes up an easy slope to an unranked summit (11,478')...
We took a short break there before losing 150 feet back to the trail outside of park boundaries...
From there, we crossed a low angle snow field and chose our lines straight up to the summit. The summit has a nice wide bench to the west. That's where we hung out for a while. The views from this summit are unique being surrounded by massive peaks and ridges. RMNP to the north and Indian Peaks Wilderness to the south...
On the way down we hit the snow field and shoe-skied down almost to the trail. The weather chased us down a little quicker than we would've normally moved. Just below treeline the clouds gathered and an afternoon monsoon storm settled in for the day. We made it out just before the main event. Nice trail up in there. Might have to make Meadow Mountain a snow hike...
