Marmot Point (11,913), Fall River Pass Mountain (12,005), Trail Ridge (12,355), Sundance Mountain (12,466), Deer Ridge West (9,012), & Deer Mountain (10,013) by Brian Schultz Friday July 22, 2022

Marmot Point:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.80 miles roundtrip
Elevation gain: 350'
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Today would be an easy day with lots of peaks to check off. We entered Rocky Mountain National Park before the rangers opened up their entrance station and drove the Fall River Road to our first peak, Marmot Point. We parked at a bend in the road just west of the peak and started up at 7:30 AM. A good trail (photo 1, photo 2) goes to the top. Along the way elk were standing nearby on the slopes. They must see lots of people because they didn't move as we approached them for pictures. The summit was reached in short order. Even with breaks for photos, this was a quick out and back hike. Beautiful weather would be with us all day, even though Colorado was back in a typical monsoon weather pattern.

Fall River Pass Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.65 miles roundtrip
Elevation gain: 205'
Start to finish: 25 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

A short drive brought us to the visitor center parking lot, where lots of people were already on the trail to this unranked twelver. We began at 8:20 AM on the excellent trail, taking all of ten minutes to reach the summit. After a few minutes for photos we departed.

Trail Ridge:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.55 miles roundtrip
Elevation gain: 330'
Start to finish: 55 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

From the visitor center the road becomes the Trail Ridge Road. We initially wanted to hike the Lava Cliffs trail, but we had drive back up the road to the Gore Range Overlook parking area because the Lava Cliffs trail was closed. It's monitored by the rangers and definitely not worth taking a chance on using it. We began at 9:05 AM on the grassy tundra (photo 1, photo 2) and reached the summit in short order. The views are quite nice from the top.

Sundance Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.25 miles
Elevation gain: 390'
Start to finish: 45 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Continuing along Trail Ridge Road, we parked at a pull-out on the road, just slightly west/northwest of the summit. We began at 10:20 AM on another tundra hike. The gentle slopes to the summit traveled quickly and once again we were greeted with terrific views from the top.

Deer Ridge West & Deer Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 6.30 miles
Elevation gain: 1440'
Start to finish: 3 hours 50 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Again continuing along the road we arrived at the Deer Mountain trailhead. This is a popular area and the parking spaces were already taken so we drove down the road and parked. We began at 11:50 AM. The trail is excellent and we spent a few minutes hiking over to Deer Ridge West, a mostly flat area barely above the trail. There are lots of switchbacks on the trail and as we neared the summit, the trail began descending. This was discouraging but it finally reaches a trail junction where a spur trail leads up to the summit. The views from the summit (photo 1, photo 2) were great and we had company on our extended break. Our hike back to the trailhead was uneventful and we arrived back to our truck at 3:40 PM.

For the day, we hiked a total of 10.55 miles and gained 2,715 feet elevation. It was a nice outing in the very scenic Rocky Mountain National Park.