Hiking – Lumpy Ridge Loop - RMNP

Carpool Place & Time: Meet at Estes Park Visitor Center parking lot at 7:30am, for no later than 7:45am departure (Estes Park Visitor's Center - Google Maps)

We'll then carpool to RMNP Lumpy Ridge trailhead parking (RMNP entrance fee) (Lumpy Ridge Trailhead - Google Maps)

We'll hike (microspikes may be needed depending upon the conditions) a loop around Lumpy Ridge in RMNP, starting from the Lumpy Ridge trailhead in Estes Park. We'll proceed clockwise around the loop, leaving Gem Lake for the end of our hike.

From the Lumpy Ridge (Gem Lake) trailhead, we'll proceed clockwise along the Black Canyon Trail above the MacGregor Ranch, with views of Longs Peak to the south. We'll pass a number of rock formations to our north. Four miles in we meet the Dark Mountain trail which takes us to the Cow Creek trail, then make our way to a plateau on the north side of Lumpy Ridge revealing a moutain meadow and the crags of Sheep Moutain to the north-east. We then meet the junction with a trail that takes us south-east to Gem Lake and return to the trailhead. If we are up for it we can try a 1 mile spur trail to view Balanced Rock. Overall ~10.5 miles and ~2500 ft elevation gain. (RMNP Lumpy Ridge Loop - CalTopo)

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