RMNP - Black Canyon & Macgregor Falls

It was forecast to be a gorgeous day, so off the RMNP I went.  I wasn't expecting too much snow, although I was sure that if I went on the the north facing trails I would encounter snow, so I took my snowshoes just in case.  I had been on the Black Canyon Trail two years ago when I looped from Lumpy Ridge to Bridal Veil Falls.  I had attempted Macgregor Falls earlier in the year, but was stopped by snow & ice.  Today was the day!

I arrived at the Lumpy Ridge trailhead about 0830.  There were two other cars in the lot, one had three guys looking like they were preparing to tackle a trail with some snow.  My guess was they were headed for the Bridal Veil Falls loop.  I later met them on the way back down.  Sure enough, they encountered over a foot of snow on the north-facing trails and decided to turn back.

The trail from Lumpy Ridge to the RMNP property fence line is a straightforward hike along the base of Lumpy Ridge overlooking the Macgregor Ranch.  Today, I decided to take the trail that wound about halfway to Gem Lake then cutoff back to Black Canyon.  There would be good elevation gain there and I had not been on the cutoff before.  Once I reached the Gem Lake/Black Canyon junction the trail was smooth and quiet.

Early Trail Conditions - nice!

There are good views of the Long's Peak and the Continental Divide.  As usual, I can't resist taking pictures of Long's and Meeker.

Long's Peak & Mount Meeker

I continued on along Black Canyon Trail until I reentered RMNP.  From there I did a quick quarter mile bushwhack to the Macgregor Falls Trail.  Just before you reenter RMNP, there is also a short cutoff to a road that leads to the Macgregor Falls Trail, but the road is on private property.  This time the hike to Macgregor Falls was uneventful, other than the few times I had to work my way around flood damage.

Big log jam

New creekbed

I did come across a new waterfall that I think was created by the September 2013 floods.  The original creek bed was just to the left of the area shown in the photo.  These falls were cut about six to ten feet below the original creekbed.

New Falls

Macgregor Falls were very nice, but a little hard to get good pictures.

Macgregor Falls - Lower (1)

Macgregor Falls - Lower (2)

Macgregor Falls - Lower (3)

Macgregor Falls

The rest of the trip was uneventful with the exception of the good, steady climb to the junction with the Dark Mountain/Cow Creek Trail.  When I got back to the trailhead, the parking lot was nearly full and on the way down the canyon, there were plenty of fisherman on the river and RVs headed to Estes.  I guess hibernation has ended.

All in all a good day.

Overall Track Statistics for RMNP - BlackCynMacregorFalls,   1421 data points

 Length 10.174 miles  :  Garmin Length 10.907 miles

 Start Elevation - 7863.25 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 9121.62 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 7758.86 feet

 Date of Hike - Apr 22, 2016

 Start Time - 08:34 AM

 End Time - 01:38 PM

 Total Duration -     5:03 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 2567.52 feet

 Total Descent - 2671.92 feet

 Net Ascent - -104.40 feet

 Maximum Grade - 18.16%

 Average Speed -  2.01 mph :  Garmin Average Speed  2.15 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 718.90 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  3.14 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) - 13.17%