Autumn had arrived to Rocky Mountain National Park with a stellar indigenous peoples summer. The leaf peepers were flocking to the area to experience the gorgeous weather and spectacular fall colors. Nate and I decided it was a great weekend for an overnight in the mountains.
We decided on Timber Lake on the west side of the park. I had never been to this lake, and the Continental Divide was a mere mile and 2000 feet above Timber Lake, so we figured we could gain the Continental Divide for sweeping views of the surrounding mountians. A wilderness permit was available for the Timber Creek backcountry site. So to Timber Lake we went!
We left on Friday after work, drove 1.5 hours from Estes Park to the Timber Lake Trailhead via Trail Ridge Road, and hiked a few miles into the Timber Creek backcountry site, enjoying several stands glowing aspens on the hike up. On Saturday we packed up camp in the morning chill and hiked the remaining couple of miles to Timber Lake, where we enjoyed breakfast and coffee in the sun near the lake. Then we headed up the tundra slope to the southeast of Timber Lake, summitting Mt. Ida shortly before noon. (I had summited Mt. Ida three times before—in June and July 2020 on a "
Estes Skyline High Route" with Nate and in June 2022
with my parents who were visiting all of the way from Canada. I later summited Ida several more times—see links at top of this page for all of these times) It was a stunning fall day, sunny and calm, and with a fresh dusting of snow on the north sides of the surrounding peaks. We hung out on the summit for awhile, soaking in the views and deciding what to do. We had brought food for two nights, so we could continue along the Divide and explore a bit before returning to camp and enjoying another night out before hiking out Sunday; or it was early enough in the day that we could hike all of the way out, drive back to Estes Park, regroup, and climb at Lumpy Ridge on Sunday. We opted for a day at Lumpy, discussing what we would climb the next day and enjoying the beautiful views and aspens as we went.
The following page gives photos from our spectacular autumn overnight and summit in RMNP. Enjoy!
