Sky Pond via Glacier Gorge Trail - March 2020

Summary

The Glacier Gorge Trail is a popular trail in the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. It is a difficult hike, and we visited in early March, so snow through an extra variable in our adventure.

AllTrails- This trail is exactly what we followed for this hike. It is also rated as one of the top trails in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Where

Rocky Mountain National Park is located in Colorado in the United States. The closest town to this trail is Estes Park.

Logistics

This hike was a part of a week-long National Parks vacation. We base camped in Morraine Campground near the trailhead to Glacier Gorge Trail. We ended up starting this hike around 11:00AM, because we visited Emerald Lake and Bear Lake earlier that morning. This is admittedly a late start for this type of hike given the altitude gain, end altitude and daylight available this time of year. I would recommend starting this hike earlier in the day (we never passed someone on our way back). One piece of advice we received as well was if you didn’t make it to Loch Lake by 1:30 to not attempt reaching Sky Pond. Given the time of year, this is good advice.

Hiking

Being early March in the Rocky Mountains, we knew we were going to see a lot of different scenarios hiking this trail. We saw a number of people wearing snow shoes, crampons and microspikes. Because we flew into Denver, we did not elect to bring our snowshoes or crampons, but decided we would see how far we could get with our microspikes. This ended up being a great decision, because microspikes were more than enough (aside from one quarter mile stretch) for this hike.

This hike has 1,700 feet of elevation gain, so 3,400 feet of elevation change over the 8 miles. The grade was not always super steep, but the tail end of the hike, to get to Sky Pond certainly felt more like scrambling than hiking. The start of the trail is rather straightforward and has a lot of signage. One of the challenges hiking this time of year is footprints often replace trail markers and footprints do not always equal trail. We found this out the hard way having to backtrack a half mile to get back on the actual trail. This cut into our timeline a bit, but we decided it was worth continuing on, and we would assess how we felt and what time it was, once we approached Loch Lake.

To reach Loch Lake, you must first pass through the Glacier Gorge, which is an incredible sight and mixed with the amount of snow you need to traverse, became quite an enjoyable experience. The challenge here is that navigating this gorge with lots of snow is one thing, but you are also approaching 10,000 feet of elevation, which, at least in my opinion, is where you really start to feel the effects of less oxygen. In my opinion, entering the Glacier Gorge is where this hike really started, both from a challenge and beauty perspective.

Once we reached Loch Lake, we had to make a decision. How far would we hike today? Would we go all the way to Sky Pond, even with the time restrictions and knowing we were limited to our microspikes? We decided we would hike to the other end of Loch Lake and continue on, with an understanding we would communicate to each other any time we felt we were branching out of our comfort level. Upon reaching the other side of Loch Lake, we ran into a group of hikers that had come down from Sky Pond and encouraged us to reach Sky Pond, but to make sure we kept moving. Their description of the experience motivated both of us and so we pressed on.

It was clear many hikers were calling Loch Lake the end of their hike, as the amount of foot traffic beyond Loch Lake was limited. As I previously mentioned, this is where the elevation gain really starts to ramp up. Our first objective was to get to Lake of Glass and assess whether or not we would attempt to reach Sky Pond. Standing in our way was a quarter mile of exposed trail, that if you were to fall, could result in great injury or even death. Looking at this stretch of trail, we had to make a decision. Should we try to tackle this stretch for the reward of reaching our destination or should we swallow our pride and admit our lacking mountaineering experience puts us at a disadvantage? We ultimately decided, as we had agreed on from the beginning, that we would proceed with caution and in the event we felt we we were exiting our comfort zones, that we would turn around.

This decision proved monumental as it relates to the final outcome! We were able to navigate the exposed stretch and scrambling, taking it slow and being very methodical with our footing. Upon exiting the rock scramble, we got our first glimpse of Lake of Glass and it was breathtaking! At this point we were above treeline completely and were surrounded in a cathedral of rocky mountains! It was clear the riskiest portion of this hike was behind us and the remaining quarter mile to get to Sky Pond flew by effortlessly. In true hiking fashion, we needed one last climb to get a view of Sky Pond, and the suspense certainly built during this last push. Upon finally reaching Sky Pond, we were rewarded with pure solitude. Nobody was remotely close to us and we were left with giant mountains and a pristine frozen pond. To say we were in our happy place is a dramatic understatement.

After soaking up the experience of our climb and the incredible views, we decided it was best to start heading back. Navigating the quarter mile stretch while descending proved to be even more difficult, but the high we were riding from our experiences leveled out our nerves and once we got through this stretch, we were all smiles on our way back to the trailhead!

Photos

Photos taken on this trail are a combination of my Google Pixel 3 and my Canon RebelT5 with an 18-55mm lens.