Dangerous Hike To Lake Haiyaha

Rocky Mountain National Park had forecast the weather pretty low, but it was a clear and sunny day so we figured we'd hit the mountains for some snowshoeing. We wanted to hike in the Bear Lake area, so we decided to set an alarm and get to the trailhead early, around 8:30 in the morning. When we arrived there were still plenty of parking spots indicating that we probably could have slept in a little longer. With the stream of cars coming in behind us, I'm sure the parking lot was filled 30-45 minutes after we arrived, and I'd rather be early than fighting for a parking spot. The hike started in just barely double-digit temperatures, but with strong winds, the temperature when accounting for windchill was probably closer to, if not below, zero. There was one time during the hike when my wrist temperature (measured by my watch) was below freezing. My wrist is pretty exposed when hiking, but having skin exposed to freezing temperatures for an extended period of time is pretty dangerous.

That's not entirely why I titled this post a dangerous hike, though. The most dangerous part of this hike was trekking along very steep ridges where one misstep could result in sliding 100+ feet down the mountain. That's not too different than most of our mountain adventures, but the loose and freshly blown snow made it extremely difficult to know where to step so that you kept solid footing. We only ended up slipping a few times, but never tumbled more than a few feet (luckily). On the way back we did see some indications of people who had unintentionally slid off the trail in some areas so the danger was real (even though they all seemed to make it out okay).

Because of the strong winds, the trail to Lake Haiyaha was pretty non-existent in some areas, and if you match our taken path to the actual trail, we were way off trail towards the end of the hike. We hiked so far off the trail that we ended up shaving off about a half-mile from the expected hiking distance. But there's really no danger in hiking off the trail as long as you know where you're going, which we did, and coupled with a GPS device, we were confident we could get back. However, since I titled this a dangerous hike, I might as well point out that because of the extreme cold, my watch rendered the battery dangerously low (electronics don't like the cold) and threatened to shut off a few times. It never did shut off, and we weren't too concerned since there were other hikers around us during most of the hike.

The lake itself was hard to see. The winds were so strong at the lake that the snow hitting the small slivers of exposed skin on our faces felt like getting impaled by sand. We really only stayed at the lake for a few moments to take a couple of photos and then got out of there quickly. I'm sure the lake area was gorgeous, but we didn't spend enough time there for me to think much about anything other than turning back. But that's okay because the real beauty in this hike was on the steep ridges that were dangerous to snowshoe across. We would get an opening that showed amazing views looking North to South. The sun washed out most of the peaks in the South, but the views to the North and East were spectacular and well lit. Those views showed a different part of the park than we're used to that was special to see. We need to come back on an overcast summer day to get the photos looking South, but the views were great nonetheless.