RMNP - Sandbeach Lake

Sandbeach Lake is a medium sized lake in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park.  I had not yet been to the Wild Basin area, so it was new country.  The draw for Sandbeach Lake is that about half the shoreline is made up of small pieces of decomposed granite (i.e. "sand").  From my limited experience, that is pretty unusual.  The trail was about 4 miles one way and rated as moderate.

I knew I needed to be down off the mountain and home by three o'clock because we were headed to a Rockies game that night, so I go a reasonably early start.  The Wild Basin area is just outside of Allenspark, so I drove up through Lyons and the South St. Vrain river canyon.  The South St. Vrain was one of the canyons more heavily damaged during the Sept 2013 floods.

When I got to the parking area, it was almost full!  I deemed this not a good sign for a solitary trip, but it turned out ok.  I only met 14 people on the trail, which for me is quite a few since I usually try and only meet 0, 1, or 2.  The trail was forested all the way with limited views, except at Sandbeach Lake itself.  Even though there were plenty of warnings at the Trailhead about this being bear country, I saw no large animals at all.  I did encounter all along the trail the ever present Rocky Mountain 'stumbling root' and 'tripping rock'.  These varmints are alway trying to make you stumble or trip; you must always be on the lookout to avoid them!

Here are some pictures.

Sandbeach TH

 I wonder how someone can only lose one shoe and not notice?

Typical trail

Looking south from trail - note haze from first

Looking east from trail - note even more smoke & haze

There was quite a bit of smokey haze in the air from various fires in Montana and Idaho.  I'm sure this would be an incredible sight on a clear day.

Sandbeach Lake w/Mt Copeland in the distance

 Up high the haze was less.

Sandbeach Lake's beach

Mt Meeker

This was the first time I had been on the south side of Mt. Meeker.  It is a huge granite outcropping.  The photo does not do it justice, but the upper parts of the mountainside are solid rock, doesn't seem like there is any rubble except down lower.  If this was Utah canyon rock, I would almost call it slickrock.

Pagoda Mountain

The day was very nice; temperature was in the mid-seventies and no clouds to speak of.  The wind was only blowing at the lake, the rest of the trail terrain shielded any of that.  There was quite a bit of haze in the air from the various forest and range fires in Idaho and Montana.

Overall it was a good day and, even though the Rockies lost that night, the game was fun.

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Overall Track Statistics for track RMNP-Sandbeach

 Length 8.468 miles
 Start Elevation - 8668.77 feet
 Maximum Elevation - 10240.12 feet
 Minimum Elevation - 8382.02 feet
 Date of Hike - Aug 21, 2015
 Start Time - 08:18 AM
 End Time - 11:58 AM
 Total Duration - 3:39 hours:min
 Total Ascent - 2243.47 feet
 Total Descent - 2466.50 feet
 Net Ascent - -223.03 feet
 Maximum Grade - 62.87%
 Average Speed -  2.31 mph
 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 995.28 feet
 Maximum Speed over Mile -  3.05 mph
 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) - 11.07%