Escaping The Nutshell

2015-10-05 Lily Lake from Estes Cone summit

We've done this many times before, but there were a couple new experiences on this one. Starting from Lily Lake at about 11:00, we headed up the Storm Pass Trail. Doing Estes Cone from Lily Lake provides a little more solitude on the first part of the hike than starting from the East Longs Peak Trail.

A little before Storm Pass, we departed the trail, and headed straight up the slope of Estes Cone. We soon came upon the trail and continued on it to the summit.

Reaching the Estes Cone summit at 12:40, we happened to be the only ones at the top. With no clouds, the warm sun, and little wind, it was heavenly there. We could see fresh snow already on the upper slopes of Longs Peak. Another impressive view is the landslide on Twin Sisters, dating to the 2013 flood, which miraculously parted at the Aspen Lodge, sparing it from destruction. The name of the Aspen Lodge has since been changed to the Dao House.

2015-10-05 Landslide from Estes Cone summit

We took the trail down to Storm Pass, and had lunch on a rock where we met some gray jays. One was brave enough to land on my hand, while Stefan took pictures.

2015-10-05 Gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis) on hand

On the way back, we veered from the trail to climb a nearby knob (40.302947,-105.55656). The view from the knob was quite fantastic, including: Lily Lake, Estes Cone, and the Twin Sisters landslide.

We finished our hike at 16:17, with total distance traveled at about 7.6 miles, altitude difference from low (parking at 8940 ft) to high (Estes Cone summit at 11032 ft) was 2092 feet, with total time 5 hrs, 17 minutes.

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