It was a nice winter Saturday and I had planned on doing a winter hike to the summit of Flattop+Hallet or hike up to Sky Pond and see what the winter conditions looked like on the Petit Grepon. But I arrived at the Bear Lake Parking Lot to find it completely full. Disappointed, I regrouped and decided to hike up to the summit of Deer Mountain, a lesser objective than planned but still giving me a few hours of hiking and enjoying the nice winter day. The Deer Mountain trail is a 6 mile round trip to the top of Deer Mountain. The trail is mostly in the trees, but the summit is open and gives great views of the RMNP skyline from Longs Peak to Ypsilon. It is an easy hike or snowshoe outing. Moving at quite a relaxed pace, it took me just under 3 hours round trip.

Below is a sampling of photos from my day out.