Hiking the Flattop Mtn Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park

10,000ft. If you are hiking one of the trails originating from the Bear Lake area, that’s about the elevation where you will run into snow, including the trail to Dream Lake, Lake Haiyaha, or the Flattop trial, which also connects to the trail to Odessa Lk. These snow obstacles can be slippery and fun, or slick and treacherous. 

And sometimes, the winter packed snow trails can lead you off the summer trail. That can make travel even more difficult. Last week, my hiking partner and I headed up the flattop trail. We were not sure what the snow situation would be like, but we decided to find out.

On many trails below 10,000ft, there are no thoughts of snow.

The start of the Flattop trail out of Bear Lake was terrific, enjoyable spring to early summer kind of hiking. Snow free conditions continued past the Beirstadt trail cutoff, but once the trail cut into the north-facing forested area, snow quickly covered much of the trail. We didn’t bother with snowshoes because we had thought we would be following a packed snow trail most of the way. 

My hiking partner brought his micro spikes and he was glad he had. I assumed the snow would be packed but soft enough without, which worked fine for me. Of course, a group of young women past us in their sneakers and that got me thinking about snow tires. Because the rubber of winter snow tires are designed to stay soft in colder temperature, they are able to grip the road better. I wondered if the same idea applied to sneakers. Trail musings.

Snowshoes is still a good idea for some trails in spring conditions.

Once we got to the Flattop cutoff, we headed up. The snow covering the trail was intermittent at this point, and sometimes the bare ground of the trail showed up. The funny thing about snow trails is they don’t always follow the trail, and somehow I had gotten off the trail, except that I was following a trail! Things began to not make sense. There were not any fresh hiking tracks on the snow, yet clearly there was a trail that showed up in the snow breaks. But this trail was not heading up hill as it should. Something was not right. What to do?

Well, as it happens, I have a new app on my phone called GPSMyHike. This app has downloadable maps of many of the trails for Rocky Mountain National Park, and a GPS locator to show you where you are on the trail or, in this case, where you are off of the trail! I checked the map and indeed, the GPS locator showed we had strayed from the main trail! Once I saw that, I was able to use the GPS locator to lead us back to the trail. I never thought I would use it for that purpose! We had apparently started to follow an old trail.

Trail map of the Flattop trail with GPS Locator from GPSMyHike

Once back on the well packed snow trail, we continued to follow it for about another hour. We were not far from the tree line and knew we wouldn’t have trouble reaching the summit at this point. Our concern became what we would find when we returned. The day was warm and the snow was softening quickly. It seemed very likely that by the end of our trip coming down, the snow might get so soft, we would start post-holing through the snow, and that would make a full day too long. If we had hauled snowshoes up, maybe we could avoid some of that problem. We retreated deciding to wait for another day.

A Clark's Nutcracker

A snack stop at the Dream Lake overlook would have to mark our accomplishment for that day. It was a gorgeous day and we lingered taking in the awesome view and mountain air. We were joined by a Clark’s Nutcracker who also was enjoying the day.

Looking across to Longs Pk and the Glacier Gorge