Snowshoeing Flattop Mountain

Snowshoeing Flattop Mountain

On the 4th of May, Brad Cook and I  snowshoed up the Flattop Mountain Trail.  Flattop is a 12,324 foot peak and is one of the most popular hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park because it's one of the easiest ways to reach the Continental Divide.  The Flattop Mountain Trail is a Grade I, Class 1 hike.

The trail can easily be connected with other trails to several other destination trails.  We started from Bear Lake, but there are a few other trail head options including Grand Lake.  So you could connect the two for a through-hike from Bear Lake to Grand Lake.  Wouldn't that be fun!

The trail starts in the northeast corner of Beak Lake and heads northeast for about a half mile, then turns west (left) at a trail junction.  From here you are heading almost straight west for another half mile, to the Fern-Odessa Trail junction.

From the junction, you head southwest and the trail begins to climb up through the forest to an overlook of Dream Lake.  This portion of the trail offers great views of the surrounding peaks.  Here's a shot toward Longs Peak, which is shrouded in clouds.

From here, the trail turns back to the northwest and climbs up through trees that become more stunted as you climb.  

Here's a shot of Brad with a view back to the east behind him.  There is another overlook of Emerald Lake where I snapped a quick pic of the Tyndall Gorge.

The face of the Hallett Peak ridge is very impressive!  The trail continues to zigzag in a generally westward direction by switching between northwest to southwest.

Brad and I didn't make it to the summit because we had a firm turn-around time, but we made it to about 11,900 feet or so.  We had a great time getting to know each other and the weather was just perfect with very little wind, which is very rare in this area.  We met exactly two people on the trail, both were skiing.