Rogers Pass Trail (Heart Lake)

Drive & Parking
This hike is close to Winter Park, CO but you don't take the normal Winter Park route over the pass. We went west of Golden and wound through some mountain roads and then went south of Nederland. Once you turn south, you are on a paved road for a little while longer but then the last 6ish miles is gravel. It's a little bumpy but not horrible. It took us a little over 1.5 hrs to get there.

There was a race going on the day we went so the parking lot was packed but luckily there is a ton of parking. I'd get there early just to get some peace of mind but you should always be able to park somewhere.

Distance
If you just go to Heart Lake it's about a 9 mile round trip. We ended up going up the pass and clocked in just shy of 10 after roaming around the lakes a little.

Elevation
You start out around 9,000 and ended up around 11,000 if you just go to Heart Lake. We ended up going up the pass which added about .5 miles both ways but ~800 more vert. At the end of the day, my Garmin said 2,861 total elevation gain.

Difficulty
For the majority of the hike, I would say this is a moderate difficulty. While it's a decent amount of vert, it's spread out quite a bit. The hardest part is right before you get to Heart Lake and Roger's Pass. These sections are not technical at all but are fairly steep.

The Hike
We started out hike around 8:11 am. As I mentioned above, there were a lot of people in the parking lot but we honestly didn't run into many people on the trail. It's a fairly popular fishing and camping site so I think a lot of people were either already fishing or still sleeping in when we started.

The entire hike until the last mile or so is in a wooded area that follows South Boulder Creek. There isn't much to see in this part of the trail even though it was nice to be by the water a lot and have some shade. After some recent fairly steep hikes, it was a nice change of pace to just be in the woods for a while.

The trail is a fairly steady uphill climb and there are quite a few rocks and roots that you have to be careful on as well as a few creek crossings but they are all fairly well maintained.

Once you get close to Rogers Pass Lake, it starts to open up quite a bit and you get some good views of the mountains around you, tons of streams, and some pretty wildflowers. There is also a pretty nice waterfall right before this section.

Even though the original hike we were going to was Heart Lake, Rogers Pass Lake is much prettier in my opinion. Below are a few pictures of it both from the lake itself and from Rogers Pass above it.

As I mentioned, since it was the Heart Lake trail, here is a picture of Ali and her heart pose.

I would recommend this hike to anyone. It has a great combination of trees, water, mountain views, and lakes. Minus it getting a little crowded around the top of the pass and around the lakes, I didn't have any complaints.

Shelf Lake

Drive & Parking
The drive took a little over 1.5 hrs from Denver. It's a very easy trip until the last 3 miles. During this portion, you go to a gravel/rock road that is very very bumpy and depending on the recent weather conditions, may have a decent amount of water on it.

We saw quite a few cars make it through as you drive around the campgrounds but I would recommend some decent clearance on your car before going down here.

The parking lot was a decent size. We got there around  7:45 and had plenty of space.

Distance
For once, both All Trails and my Garmin tracked us right at 6.8 miles.

Elevation
~1,900 elevation gain with a max elevation of around 11,500.

Difficulty
This is a fairly moderate to easy hike. There is some elevation gain but it's very gradual and no technical portions.

The Hike
I'll start out by saying this hike was just sub par. The first few miles are winding uphill through the forest with a lot of Aspen trees around you. I'm sure it would be pretty during the Fall.

Once you break through the trees, you start to get some views of the mountains around you which is pretty nice. As you get closer to the lake, there were some very nice wild flowers and a pretty waterfall with a mountain peak as the backdrop.

You'll continue through a fairly open section for a few miles until you finally hit the lake. The lake is nice but nothing special at all. There were a handful of fisherman there and it started to rain once we hit the end so we didn't spend much time there.

It was nice to get out and the wild flowers were pretty, but I would say that was the highlight of this hike.

Longs Peak - Keyhole Route

Drive & Parking
It only took us about 1.5 hrs. from Denver to get to the trail head, however we left at midnight so there wasn't much traffic. The road is paved the entire way and it was a very easy drive compared to other hikes.

The trail head parking lot is a decent size with a lot of parking along the road which adds mileage to the hike, but gives you flexibility if get you there late. The lot fills up very quickly so the sooner the better.

Distance
I've seen a lot of different numbers on this that range from 13 to 14 miles. My Garmin tracked us at 15.9 once it was all said and done. We did a little walking around at the top and took a small detour around Chasm Lake. I think it's probably closer to the 14 - 15 mile range but due to how much scrambling and rock hopping we had to do, it zig zagged us a lot on parts of the mount.

Elevation
The trail head starts around 9,400 and the peak is 14,259. My Garmin tracked 4,915 feet which is pretty close.

Difficulty
This is a hard trail no matter how you look at it. It's a long distance with a lot of elevation gain. You really have to break this trail down into multiple parts.

Trail head --> Boulder Field
This part is a steady uphill climb but nothing technical at all.

Boulder Field --> Key Hole
This portion requires some boulder hopping but nothing crazy. It gets tiring due to the elevation and you have to be care not to slip.

Key Hole --> Summit
This is where the hike truly begins. You do not need to perform this hike if you are scared of heights/exposure, not in good shape, or confident with scrambling and some minor rock climbing moves.

I think the picture below describes it well.

The Hike
We started the hike at 1:45 am on Sunday morning. There were a handful of other people in the parking lot but not bad at all. The first few miles of the hike are in a wooded area that follows a stream. This part of the hike is pretty straight forward as you just start a gradual climb up.

Once you leave the forest, you start the alpine tundra portion of the hike. This was beautiful at night as you could see the outlines of the mountains with the moonlight and the stars were amazing with no lights around. On our way back down, it provided some pretty views of the surrounding area but was fairly exposed if weather is coming in. Depending on the conditions, it can get pretty wet in this area leading up to the boulder field and we had to do some rock hopping to avoid streams.

Below is a picture with longs in the background on our way back down.

Around 6 miles in, you reach the boulder field. It was still pitch black by the time we got here but navigated the area pretty easily with head lambs. You have to be careful jumping around but it's pretty basic scrambling. If we weren't trying to beat weather, I would recommend catching the sunrise at the keyhole as it would have been beautiful. However, we were on a timeline with storms coming in so had to keep on going. Here is a quick pic from the keyhole with the sun starting to come up and a few hikers below us.

Once you go through the keyhole, you get some pretty amazing views of the mountain range on the other side.

The next portion of the hike is called "The Ledges". It's not a very long portion of the hike with minimal elevation gain but it's the first part that truly gets you some exposure as you horizontally go across the mountain.

Here are a few pictures of this area of the hike, even though they don't do it justice.

The next portion of the trail is called The Trough. This is a fairly short section but it's about 600 elevation gain and more of a climb vs. a hike. While this part was hard from a cardio perspective and needed some decent scrambling techniques, it wasn't nearly as exposed as you were going up vs. horizontal. Here is one pic from the bottom looking up and top looking down.

After you get to the top of this portion of the trail, you think you are close but you are terribly wrong. You then make a left on the other side of the mountain and hit the Narrows. This has the most exposure and a almost sheer drop off. Some sections of the trail are only around 3 -4 feet wide.

Here's a picture of my friend Brian start out and one showing the view off the side.

Once you finally get off the narrows, it's time for the final push to the top. This is called the Homestretch. It's only about .2 miles long but around 280 vert. This was a class 3 slope and not terribly technical in most areas. You just had to pay attention to make sure you were picking your route correctly and had three points of contact whenever possible. We got into a few areas where a minor rock climbing move was needed but nothing crazy. It was very tall through and tiring.

Then we finally made it to the top! It took us 5.5 hrs. total. Unfortunately as soon as we hit the top, we started to get sleeted on with some rain as well so didn't get to enjoy the views much.

The climb down was one of the worse things I've ever done. Even though it only rained a little, it made the rocks very very slick and for the first portion of the climb down we were literally sliding down on our butts a few feet at a time and finding places where we could stop ourselves. Since it was so slick and steep, this was a very dangerous portion of the trail in those conditions.

As we continued to go down, the rain picked up and it even started to lightening in the distance with some pretty loud thunder as we hit the narrows. The narrows and other ledges were very dangerous in the wet conditions and we had to go very slow going down making sure all of our handholds/footholds were solid.

After what felt like 90 hrs. of getting to the keyhole, we were finally able to relax a little since even though the boulder field was still dangerous with slick rocks, the exposure was not there. We ended up getting rained on until Chasm Lake until it lightened up and we finished the long haul back.

Here's a picture of Chasm Lake from the trail and it's pretty awesome seeing Longs Peak in the background knowing we just came from there.

I'm very glad I did it, but doubt I would do it again. The views and scenarios you are put in are challenging but fun. If it wasn't for the wet conditions, it wouldn't have been bad at all. I highly recommend never even thinking about going up there or turning around quickly if rain is on the way. It made the trail significantly harder.

All-in-all, it took is 10 hrs 36 min for the round trip. Which is pretty solid considering the conditions. If it wasn't wet, we would have easily shaved off 40 minutes of that time.

Woods and Parnassus Mountain

Drive & Parking

This is a really easy drive from Denver. It took us a little under an hour to get there and only the last mile or so was gravel road.

There isn't much of a parking lot and when we got there at 7:30 we were vehicle #5 and you could probably only fit 7 if they are packed in pretty tight. I'm sure you could probably park on the road on the weekend assuming the mining company isn't working then.

Also note that the "trail head" is not labeled at all. From the small parking area, you walk about 200 hundred feet and there was a 4x4 road to our left that said "Closed. Avalanche Danger". We ended up going up this path and it took us where we needed to go.

Distance

It's supposed to be around 8.3 but we ended up going 8.79 after some backtracking and bushwhacking. 

Elevation

You start out at around 10,000 ft. and end up around 13,500 feet. Overall, my Garmin said we had a total of 3,648 elevation gain.

Difficulty

This is a fairly hard hike. The distance isn't bad but a fairly short distance, you gain a lot of elevation. We took a slightly different approach than the normal trail should which caused us to do a lot more bushwhacking/scrambling up some fairly steep areas.

While the going up is hard due to elevation/pitch, going down is just as hard due to fairly loose rocks and the steepness. You will definitely need to be in good shape for this one.

The Hike

The first 1.3ish miles of the hike isn't much fun. You are on a 4x4 road and have a steady uphill climb on a fairly rocky road. Ruby Creek will be to your right and you can hear the water but won't be able to see it for a while. While on the 4x4 road, there is a branch off to the left that I have no idea where it goes. Make sure you stay to the right with the creek close to you.

After you've gone a little over a mile, you'll have a handful of creek crossings and will start to be able to see the mountains in the distance. This is where the trail starts getting pretty. Below is a screenshot of the path we took but it was not the correct one that is posted on AllTrails or other areas.

At one point in the trail, you are basically sharing the trail with a creek and it starts going uphill a little more and to the west. For some reason we missed this or decided to go the other way but at that point in time you should start zig-zagging up to the top of the mountain on your west side and then follow the top of it to Woods Mountain and then finally Parnassus. What we did was take the valley and followed the stream the majority of the way until we got right below Woods and then scrambled straight up. While it was fun to bushwhack through, the final scramble up was pretty tough.

Below is a picture from the valley with Woods on your far right. We went straight up to the top bushes just on the north side of the snow pack and then headed west to Woods. If you did the trail correct, you would be on the ridge to the west of this picture.

Once you get to Woods, you are awarded with great views all around you. 

Unfortunately you are also rewarded with a view of your next location, Parnassus, which makes you go down to head back up again. After the last vertical going to Woods, our legs were already tired so it was a trek to get up that final incline even though the distance wasn't that bad. Below is a picture from Woods, looking to Parnassus on the right.

Parnassus also provides some really good views of the valley you just came from and Bard Peak. If I had more time, I wish we could have gone over to it.

The final push down was similar to the route we took up. As I mentioned, normally you would come in counterclockwise and hit the ridge to the two peaks and go back down through the valley. We took a slightly different path through the valley which was fun but was also quite a bit more bushwhacking going down. No matter what, the mountains kind of funnel you into where you need to go so it's hard to get truly lost.

Minus the first part of this trail, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The creek crossings were fun, I enjoyed making my own path, and the views at the top were great. I would just highly recommend doing it the correct way to save yourself from being as tired before going up the final push.

Also, we didn't see anyone else from our side of the mountain and just a handful of hikers that came in from the Herman Gulch Trailhead.