Trekking Poles in Rocky Mountain National Park

Back from Rocky Mountain National Park.   With early starts we had serene and sublime hikes – with parking at the trailheads 🙂   Below are low-to-the-ground flowers at 12,000′ and a photo from our hike to and beyond The Loch.

Poles Tip:  When crossing a bridge, lift your poles as I show below.   I lengthened them in case I needed them for support, but we don’t want our pole tips to get stuck between wood slats on bridges.  If I had felt uncertain, I could have pointed the tips inward with my arms out (a la trapeze style) to give me a bit more support.

Yes, I was using serious zoom rather than approach wildlife.

Poles Tip:  Below is a little hiker carrying his poles.  His head was bumping against them, so they pulled them out to the side in an X.   I thought they looked like they could get caught on vegetation.  We like to carry our poles grip down (straps clasped) with the tip up, rubber tips on.  However there was no terrain this day on which we would CARRY our poles.  They were too much fun to use.    We got great exercise and spinal rotation on the up, good support on the down and an extra set of legs on all the rocky/uneven sections.

Poles Etiquette Tip:  Second photo shows how I PROP my poles vs. laying them on the ground.  I liked the tree shadows on my long foam grips.  Long foam grips are worth their weight in gold if you need and use them.  In our hiking poles DVD, we show practice segments on how and why to use long foam grips.

While in CO, I presented a short session at the Denver Athletic Club.  On the drive back to Parker, we encountered driving rain, flooding, golf ball-sized hail and tornado warnings.  It was torrential and terrifying.

Below we drove to about 12,000′ above the tree line.  Good thing we had plenty of water in the car 🙂   We relaxed and practiced deep breathing and my slight headache resolved.  In the 2nd photo, you can see Timberline falls in the distance.  We had set a turnaround time, so this was as close as we got.   Dry year in CO (as well as CA) so not as many flowers or as much water, but RMNP is glorious!

We were able to explore some new trails and re-visit some favorites.  Hope your weekend was splendid as well.  See you OTT (on the trail)