August 15th, 2019
Samanta and I woke at 7:00 at the trailhead for Greys and Torrey's Peak and got ready. There was a large group of volunteers there at the same time and lots of other hikers so the parking lot was jam packed and looked very different from the previous night. Interesting that I never woke up to any of the cars but I can be a heavy sleeper.
The first portion of the trail meandered through a beautiful alpine setting. It was 8:00 and the sun was already high in the sky and was heating us up. Neither Sam nor I had been at such high elevation before so it took some time to get used to it and many frequent breaks. About an hour in the easy part was over and the trail began to gain some elevation as we climbed towards the scree flanks of the peaks.
There were lots of people on the mountain and even some coming down when we were just starting so they must have started early. About halfway up the mountain the rail diverged with one path leading towards Greys Peak and the other to Torrey's. We decided to do Torrey's first because we (mistakenly) thought it was higher (its actually 1 meter lower!) and we wanted to get the hard bit done first before having lunch. In the end it didn't really matter as the climb down, across the saddle and up to the other peak is only an hour.
Once at the top of Torrey's Peak we enjoyed our lunch of sandwiches, trail mix and fruit and admired the views. Looking back the way we came we both agreed the terrain reminded us of Scottish highlands or something (even though we both haven't been to Scotland). I looked down the ridge towards Kelso Mountain and saw a trail, another hiker overheard me and informed me that was a class 3 scrambling route they had just came up. It joined with the main trail lower down where Sam and I had seen a fork split off in that direction. It looked fun and if I lived in Colorado it would definitely be a worthy trip.
After our quick break and some summit photos we descended to the saddle and headed up to Greys Peak. The final elevation gain was a bit tougher as our bodies thought they were done when we rested but we slogged it up and bagged our second peak of the day. There was a family of mountain goats at the top warily eyeing hikers and we ate beside them. They kept moving closer as we ate however and I didn't feel like fighting mountain goats that afternoon so we moved a bit.
The hike back down was the usual mind numbing one foot in front of the other affair punctuated only by a quick stop at a rocky outcropping that I quickly scrambled up to take a photo (thanks Sam!). After we took that photo Sam pointed out how we had mentioned to her cousin we weren't the type to take risks for a photo... oops.
We were both pretty tired when we got back to the truck at 2:00 and decided to make a quick meal and have a nap. We had bought some canned chicken in Denver and mixed that with some mashed potatoes and veggies in to a gruel like mixture (canned chicken tastes like canned tuna). After that we napped in the truck until 3:00.
Our plan was to head down and try to find a spot to camp but Sam wasn't feeling great and I proposed staying at a motel which she agreed to. We got to the motel at around 5:00 and the rest of the evening was uneventful. We were both tired and watched some TV (Fox News Trump, woot!) and browsed the internet.
We decided to head in to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) the next morning to try to get a camping spot at Longs Peak campground.
The first portion of the trail meandered through a beautiful alpine setting. It was 8:00 and the sun was already high in the sky and was heating us up. Neither Sam nor I had been at such high elevation before so it took some time to get used to it and many frequent breaks. About an hour in the easy part was over and the trail began to gain some elevation as we climbed towards the scree flanks of the peaks.
There were lots of people on the mountain and even some coming down when we were just starting so they must have started early. About halfway up the mountain the rail diverged with one path leading towards Greys Peak and the other to Torrey's. We decided to do Torrey's first because we (mistakenly) thought it was higher (its actually 1 meter lower!) and we wanted to get the hard bit done first before having lunch. In the end it didn't really matter as the climb down, across the saddle and up to the other peak is only an hour.
Once at the top of Torrey's Peak we enjoyed our lunch of sandwiches, trail mix and fruit and admired the views. Looking back the way we came we both agreed the terrain reminded us of Scottish highlands or something (even though we both haven't been to Scotland). I looked down the ridge towards Kelso Mountain and saw a trail, another hiker overheard me and informed me that was a class 3 scrambling route they had just came up. It joined with the main trail lower down where Sam and I had seen a fork split off in that direction. It looked fun and if I lived in Colorado it would definitely be a worthy trip.
After our quick break and some summit photos we descended to the saddle and headed up to Greys Peak. The final elevation gain was a bit tougher as our bodies thought they were done when we rested but we slogged it up and bagged our second peak of the day. There was a family of mountain goats at the top warily eyeing hikers and we ate beside them. They kept moving closer as we ate however and I didn't feel like fighting mountain goats that afternoon so we moved a bit.
The hike back down was the usual mind numbing one foot in front of the other affair punctuated only by a quick stop at a rocky outcropping that I quickly scrambled up to take a photo (thanks Sam!). After we took that photo Sam pointed out how we had mentioned to her cousin we weren't the type to take risks for a photo... oops.
We were both pretty tired when we got back to the truck at 2:00 and decided to make a quick meal and have a nap. We had bought some canned chicken in Denver and mixed that with some mashed potatoes and veggies in to a gruel like mixture (canned chicken tastes like canned tuna). After that we napped in the truck until 3:00.
Our plan was to head down and try to find a spot to camp but Sam wasn't feeling great and I proposed staying at a motel which she agreed to. We got to the motel at around 5:00 and the rest of the evening was uneventful. We were both tired and watched some TV (Fox News Trump, woot!) and browsed the internet.
We decided to head in to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) the next morning to try to get a camping spot at Longs Peak campground.
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