Father/Son Lawn Lake Backpacking Trip

FATHER/SON LAWN LAKE BACKPACKING TRIP

Early last week I called the Backcountry Office at Rocky Mountain National Park   Since we were so late making reservations, I just asked what they had available within hiking distance for an 11 year old boy.

The two triangles note where the campsites are

The ranger I spoke with said that two campsites were available along the Lawn Lake Trail in the Mummy Range area.  A quick check of the distance/elevation and a glance at the map and I said, "sign us up!"  I sent in the reservation form, but without enough time to mail back our permit, we needed to swing by and pick it up on our way.  Luckily the Backcountry Office is open from 7 AM - 7 PM.

The permit that goes on your pack while hiking and on your tent once you arrive at your campsite

As soon as I got off work on Friday, we drove up.  The Backcountry Office is located just behind the Beaver Meadows Visitors Center, which is just as you enter the park on highway 36.  We paid our $20 administration fee, picked up our permit and we drove the short distance from the visitors center to the trailhead.

The Lawn Lake Trailhead is located just off of highway 34 where you turn off to drive up Old Fall River Road.  Along with our backcountry camping permit, they also issued us an overnight vehicle permit which goes in the dash of your vehicle whenever it is parked overnight inside the park.

Lawn Lake is the most popular backcountry destination within the Mummy Range area.  The hike offers great views of Roaring River and amazing vistas of the surrounding 13,000-foot peaks.

From the trailhead, the Lawn Lake trail climbs steeply along a ridge to an overlook of Roaring River.  Then it follows the river to the junction with the Ypsilon Lake trail at the 1.5 mile mark.

Picture of the bridge across Roaring River that leads from the main trail to the campsites

The trail continues north along the west side of Bighorn Mountain.  The trail gets steep here with several sets of switchbacks until it comes out on a more level section of the trail where you can occasionally catch views of the steep southwestern face of Mummy Mountain.

Just past this flatter section you'll come to the side trail for the campsites located at 2.5 miles.

The first night, we were at Golden Banner and the second night we were at Cutbank, a result of our last minute reservation.  However, the two sites are within a few hundred feet of each other, so it wasn't much to take down the tent and set it right back up.  The trails have nice tent pads and a privy.

Blaine thought the bridge across the river that leads to the campsites was cool!

We got camp setup just in time the first night.  We didn't need lights to pitch the tent, but as soon as we were done, darkness descended upon us.  We played cards in the tent until Blaine grew tired.

The next day we rose, tore down camp, packed it up and moved it to the new site.  Then we headed out back on the main trail up to Lawn Lake.

There were lots of critters along the way.  The trail through this section is steeper again to the trail juction with Black Canyon Trail, then it levels out the last 0.6 miles to the lake.

In the early 1900s, a Pingree Park area pioneer by the name of Hugh Ramsey built an earthen dam across the outlet of Lawn Lake.  With the dam in place, it significantly enlarged the lake, which was then used for irrigation.  When Rocky Mountain National Park was established in 1915, all the dams that were already established were allowed to remain in place.  Over time, water began to seep through the dirt and rock around the dam's outlet pipe.  It finally collapsed on July 15th, 1982, and water held back by the dam gushed down the Roaring River drainage.  The resulting deluge picked up large boulders and trees as it barreled down toward Horseshoe Park.  Three people were killed in the massive flood that flowed into Fall River and on into Estes Park itself.  The scar left when the dam gave way can be seen on the left hand side in the below picture.

The lake offers some pretty amazing views of Fairchild Mountain to the west, Hagues Peak to the north and Mummy Mountain to the northeast.

We found a place for a picnic lunch and just as we were wrapping up, we heard thunder, so instead of exploring the lake further, we turned back around and headed down the trail.

There is a patrol cabin and a privy located near the lake.

It also has horse corals and we were passed on the trail by rangers on horseback on patrol.

It sprinkled on us off and on down the trail.  Blaine twisted his ankle shortly after we started back and so that coupled with having to frequently put our rain gear on and then off again, slowed us down a bit.

We returned to camp to find two deer were sharing it with us.

Exploring around our campsite, we discovered some beautiful cascades just above where Ypsilon Creek flows into Roaring River.

The next day, I taped up Blaine's ankle and we headed down.  On the way out, we caught some good views of the river and of Longs Peak.  I had a great time with Blaine and I got the feeling that he really enjoyed the undivided attention.