Deer Mountain Peak 10,013' Colorado Vacation Day 2

[Girl Hiker]

The company I work for shuts down for the Christmas holiday and I wanted to go out of state. So I chose Colorado because I wanted to hike in the snow. Sean and I boarded a plane the day after Christmas catching the first flight out at 5:30am. When we arrived there was a light snow storm. It was 12 degrees and freezing. I knew that being surrounded by snow was truly going to be a very nice white Christmas for me. The views surrounding us as we drove through various cities were breathtaking. I have never been surrounded by so much snow in my life and I was truly excited! The first day we arrived we took it easy, shopped for additional clothing because it was obvious that we needed warmer attire. We took a tour of an old Victorian house and ate dinner. Since I was in charge of the itinerary, the first thing on my list was to hike in the Rocky Mountains. I didn't care what peak I bagged, I just wanted to hike because I was exhilarated to be in this beautiful mountain range.

We made a detour to admire Estes Lake with a view of the Rocky Mountains.

Entering the Rocky Mountains National Forest.

We finally arrived at the trail head and made our way towards the Deer Mountain Trail.

I was in heaven hiking in the Rocky Mountains and snow, snow, snow everywhere!

As the trail ascends there were lots of switchbacks as we got closer to the summit. There wasn't another soul around and we had this beautiful trail all to ourselves.

Finally we reached the summit of Deer Mountain Peak and called it a day. We wanted to get back to the car before dark.

More breathtaking views along the trail.

A sweet sunset.

We spent the entire week in Colorado and had a different adventure every day. The temps were between the 20's & 30's at night and between-30's & 50's during the day. The coldest day was our arrival at the Denver airport. Having to wake up every morning and scrape snow and ice from the car windows was an experience. Of course Sean did all the manual labor. haha!
More Trip Reports to follow.

[JeffH]

Good thing you brought him to do the work.
Great pics, they showcase an outstanding day in the wilderness. I’m surprised there weren’t a lot of people but I guess the locals are used to those sights.

[CrazyHermit]

That looks mega cold. Those last two photos are awesome.

[Sean]

A few additional pictures...

A neat bridge along the drive to Rocky Mountain NP. North Saint Vrain River in Lyons.

Approaching Estes Park, at the entrance to Rocky Mountain NP.

Deer grazing in the Park.

Cecelia was very cold, and I had to fix her broken microspikes in subfreezing weather. That was a lot of fun. Thankfully this panoramic view helped take my mind off my ice-cold fingers.

We blazed through 1-2 feet of fresh snow on the trail.

We made it to the high point and called it a day.

[CrazyHermit]

Those ones look even colder.