Deer Mountain

The weather was just about perfect for snowshoeing. There was snowfall during the week and this weekend it was forecasted to be sunny in Rocky with minimal wind and above freezing temperatures. We've been wanting to get out and snowshoe some more now that it's finally snowing in Colorado. We've only received two decent snowfalls in the foothills now, and prior to that, the high peaks just had a slight dusting on them, so this was really our first chance to get to enjoy the snow.

We always plan multiple hiking contingencies when going into Rocky Mountain National Park because the ability to park where we want to is always a gamble with their small parking lots (relative to the demand, at least). We started heading towards Bear Lake hoping to get a spot at one of the major 3 parking lots along the way, just to find out that the road was closed before we even got a chance to do not only our first or second choice of a hike, but also our third backup. Frustrated with the road closure, we quickly pivoted to try and find something else. At that point, we had been in the car for over an hour and a half, so we knew we had to do at least something, so we headed to the Deere Mountain trailhead. There isn't a lot of parking at that trailhead, but we managed to get a spot and we started the hike.

We were only originally planning on doing a 3.5-mile hike, and Deere Mountain is 6 miles round trip, so right off the bat, we knew that we weren't going to finish the hike. The hike started out completely snow-packed with absolutely no need for snowshoes. There were several points where we were walking on the dirt and there was just a dusting of snow on the trail. After about a half-mile into the hike, the snow started getting thicker and the snowshoes were necessary. So at least we did find a hike where we did need our snowshoes.

We ended up making it about two-thirds of the way to the summit of Deer Mountain for a round trip total of just under 4 miles and 1,000 feet of elevation gain. the hike took just love two and a half hours including stopping on the way up for lunch.