USA Trip.....Rocky Mountains

Sun, snow and altitude sickness was how our Rocky Mountains adventure started.

A beautiful blue sky was how our day started, barely a cloud in the sky. Stunning scenery for the 8 hour drive. Once again we arrived in the dark, not knowing what to expect when we woke up. We struggled to find a good park up away from bear territory, this was the one and only time we parked up in a lay-by.

We woke up early, with severe headaches. We couldn't understand why we were suffering so bad. We had eaten plenty, drank a lot of water and slept well. Little did we know at the time we were both suffering from altitude sickness. But, we weren't going to let this ruin our day. By no means was it easy, every step was a struggle, every breath we took was a struggle!

Knowing we were in bear territory we headed straight to an outdoor shop to buy a bear spray; our thought was, if we have it we won't need it. Luckily, we didn't need it on this part of our trip.

The early morning drive to the mountains was beautiful, blue skies, forests and snow capped mountains. We instantly knew we were in for an unforgettable day.

We drove for approximately forty-five minutes before we saw the sign we had been waiting for.

The weather was beautiful and we were looking forward to our first hike into the mountains. With it being out of season, we did not know where we would be able to park up for the night. Fortunately, there was one campsite open within the national park and there were free pitches. We booked our spot, attached our reservation and prepared for our hike.

The campsite was basic; you had your pitch, food storage locker, fire pit and nothing else. This is exactly what we wanted.

We packed our bag with all of the essentials; bear spray, food, water and snacks. We, mainly Helen, all need a good selection of snacks.

We made our way to the national park ready for our hike, we easily found a parking spot. Boots on, bag at the ready we set off with a glorious blue sky. We only made it five minutes from the camper before we had to head back.....

We were not prepared for the ground to be snow covered! We picked up our boot spikes and headed back out to begin our hike. We opted to head towards Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake, thinking this would be the best option due to the ground conditions. It was also our first mountain hike of the trip so we didn't want to over exert ourselves. With our spikes fully secured to our boots, we headed off to the lakes.

We weren't sure what to expect, would the lakes be frozen? What would the weather conditions be? How high would we hike?

Before we left the UK, we had set ourselves some goals. One of which was to hike up to 3,000 meters another was to be able to experience hiking while it was snowing. Would we achieve this today? These goals may not sound like real challenges, however living in the UK, generally we haven't had either of these opportunities.

The weather quickly changed. It became very cold with a fluttering of snow

It was only a small flutter of snow, but would it last?

The snow wasn't heavy, we both agreed this would not have any impact on our hike even when the ground became icy. We were fully confident in our Grivel Explorer Anti-Slip Micro Crampon, they had already proved themselves in Eryri and the Black Cuillins.

We arrived at Nymph Lake first, it was beautifully frozen. A backdrop of a forest and snow capped mountains made it appear we were in a winter wonderland in April. At this moment we knew we were exactly where we wanted to be.

We circumnavigated the lake and continued on our hike towards Dream Lake and Emerald Lake. The ground conditions quickly changed; deeper snow, thicker ice and the path quickly became invisible. We took our time, carefully checking each footstep as we headed higher into the mountains. But how high were we? At this point we began to track our altitude, we were much higher than we expected but this also helped to explain why we were struggling so much. The difficulty breathing, headaches and general lack of energy was something neither of us had experienced before. We decided to continue on, increasing our altitude with each step.

Dream Lake and Emerald Lake were equally stunning. Emerald Lake was still heavily frozen, yes we did step out on to the ice. The air was thick, we assumed it was low lying mist but we would soon realise it was snow, a lot of snow.

Having reached Emerald Lake, we took a break. A quick snack, rehydrated and decided whether we should continue on the Dream Lake. We didn't check our altitude, we agreed to make a decision based on how we were feeling and not on our goal to reach 3,000m. We were struggling but agreed we could continue, until one of us decided we couldn't continue on our hike. We rested for about 20 mins before leaving this amazing view. The temperature had dropped significantly but we knew we would warm up once we started moving.

Dream Lake had already started to melt but this did not make it any less stunning. Even now, we can't agree what was more beautiful; the partially frozen lake or the surrounding forest and snow capped mountains draped in a mixture of thick air and large snowflakes.

Snow falling over Dream Lake

At Dream Lake we agreed continuing on would not be wise. The temperature continued to drop, the snow was getting heavier and we were still struggling with headaches and breathing. We weren't ready to head back down the mountains but we knew this was the safest decision. Knowing we had reached our highest point of the hike, we checked our altitude. Had we reached a goal for the trip?

We did it! We beat our goal by 10 meters!

On our first hike we achieved two of our goals, hiking while it was snowing and achieving 3,000 meters. It was an exhausting, exhilarating and a day to remember.

But, will we achieve another one of our goals; see a bear! Keep following to find out if we achieve this goal.