Escaping The Nutshell

2013-06-02 McGregor Mtn from Black Canyon Trail

You can see the GPS tracks for this entire hike. Here is a crude National Park Service pdf map of the Lumpy Ridge area.

The video shows: McGregor Mtn and Lumpy Ridge (first 16 sec), Black Canyon Creek (17-24 sec), McGregor Falls (25-45 sec), hiking up McGregor Mtn (46-1:47), views from summit area (1:48-2:19), Lumpy Ridge from McGregor Mtn (2:20-2:34), McGregor Falls on return (2:35-2:49), Lumpy Ridge: The Pair and The Citadel (2:50-3:03), rabbit off Black Canyon Trail (3:04-3:48), Lumpy Ridge: Twin Owls (3:49-4:05).

We started hiking from the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead at 9:35. Taking the trail that heads northwest from the parking lot to the Twin Owls, we then headed west/northwest on the Black Canyon Trail. After 2.0 miles from the start (at 40.404383,-105.541000), a dirt road comes within about 200 feet downhill from the trail and parallels it. At this point, we left the trail and followed the road in the same direction we had been going on the trail. Just before the Estes Park Filtration Plant, at 2.7 miles, there is a gate across the road and a trailhead sign on the right side for the McGregor Falls Trail. We took this trail to the falls, reaching it at 10:55 (distance: 3.16 miles, elev: 8402 ft).

After taking video of the falls, we left the trail, and headed west up the steep slope of McGregor Mountain. At an elevation of 9383 ft and distance of 3.69 miles, we reached a small plateau. From here to the top, we changed our direction to the northwest, with the terrain becoming mostly bare granite and fairly steep, gaining 1129 feet of elevation in 0.55 miles.

We reached the McGregor summit at 12:13, having hiked 4.25 miles from the start, and gained 2723 feet. The summit register showed the last signing was on March 14 2012. The previous signing of March 2 said that the old register, placed there by Mike Garratt, was full and that it was removed. Only a few pages from the old register remained, which we signed. The view from the summit is astounding. We could see a large part of Rocky Mountain National Park: from the Twin Sisters to Mummy Mountain, and most points in between.

We had lunch near the summit, in the shade of a limber pine. The limber pines here are very inspiring, putting up with a lot of hardship and not complaining.

We left the McGregor summit at 13:15, following our GPS tracks back the way we came, and returned to McGregor Falls at 14:53 (distance 5.37 miles)

Getting back to the Lumpy Ridge Trailhead at 16:16, we traveled a total distance of 8.46 miles. Our minimum altitude (parking area) was 7792 ft, and maximum altitude (summit) was 10515 ft, making a difference of 2723 feet.

2013-05-18 Elevation profile: Lumpy Ridge Trailhead to McGregor Mtn summit and back