Hiking and backpacking in Rocky Mountain National Park requires a lot of planning that is not required when camping in other places around CO. RMNP requires permits for any backcountry camping- which means you have to know exactly where you want to camp before you go. Not only that, but the spots fill very quickly so you literally need to know where you are headed weeks in advance. We learned that the hard way trying to secure a permit for a particular area of the park and being laughed at over the phone. We ammended our plans a bit to go to a different area in the northern (less popular) part of the park only to find out at the last minute that - while there were sites available- all backcountry campers are required to have a bear cannister in order to receive a permit.
A bear cannister!??! We have had no problems with bears by simply hanging our bear bags high in a tree where bears cannot get to them. Unfortunately, since some campers don't get their bags high enugh in the trees, etc. RMNP and other national parks are requiring actual bear cannisters. They apparently hide odors and are indestructible by bears. They are also a minimum of 60.00! So this, plus the 20.00 backcountry permit fee plus the 20.00 park entry fee would put us at 100.00 to do something we do every weekend for free...
(this is a bear cannister...it is also CLEARLY not worth $60)
I am not saying national parks should not have a fee- the money goes to protecting the land and paying the rangers and workers who keep the parks looking beautiful. But the double permit/entry fee AND the bear cannister just pushed the whole thing over the edge. So late Saturday morning, after reailzing we weren't going to follow through with the plans we had, we shifted gears and headed back to the ten-mile mosquito range we had visited last week.
Our destination was Crystal Peak. The trailhead was about 5 miles north of last weeks trailhead. It was a stunning, solitary hike from the trailhead to just past Lower Crstal Lake at 12,000ft where we set up a tent for the evening. We summited on Sunday by 9:15 and made our way back down.
View from camp
See our tent behind me? Here I'm sitting 'in the kitchen'. Can't you tell?
View from the tent nearing sunset
Dawn
Adorable pika yelling at us to leave him alone
Final stretch of scree to the summit - that blue speck at the top is me!
Summit!
Crystal is 13,852 ft and the 82nd highest mountain in Colorado.
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