Trail Running to Andrew's Tarn and Andrew's Glacier
Rocky Mountain National Park is a very unknown quantity in my mountain running biography. It's pretty damn close to Boulder but without any fourteeners (except Longs Peak right next door - which I've summited) sometimes it's tough to commit to such a large and circuitous place.
With no motivation this weekend to run a big peak, though Mount Princeton and Mount Massive MUST be bagged before season's end (they'll complete my summits of the Sawatch Range peaks), and not wanting to run another long one from home to Green and Bear (been running a 16 mile loop on those peaks a lot lately) I started researching spots in RMNP. I located some other runners' STRAVA loops, particularly one loop I'll be back for soon (Flattop-Hallett-Otis), and found a picture of the stunning lake at Andrew's Glacier. Done. Let's go.
I drove from downtown through Lyons and up highway 36 to Estes. I got a late start and didn't reach the Beaver Meadows parking lot until about noon. The tolls into the park were backed up three abreast and with a sign saying the lot to Bear Trail were full, I u-turned back for Beaver Meadows to catch the free shuttle. I waited nearly 20 minutes for the next shuttle to arrive, meanwhile I tried to buy a $10 park pass but the machine was shut down. I loaded the shuttle and as we approached the toll I fully expected to have to dish out my $10 to enter. Nope, the shuttle just cruised through in its own lane right past probably thirty cars waiting to (pay) and enter. Though this summer I've spent $20 total to access the Maroon Bells, it still chaps my ass the notion of having to pay to go run (after driving a long way to get there).
Missing the toll here was a really nice bonus. The shuttle (Hiker) took me not to the trail head I needed but to another park-n-ride. Before I transferred to another bus which took me to the Glacier Gorge TH*, I was greeted by a ranger who offered a free trail map.
*The time spent "commuting" through the park was probably about 20 minutes.
Getting off at Glacier Gorge, I was met by another ranger who asked where I was headed and offered direction and recommendations. Though this whole experience was a little Disneyworld, this ranger was a pretty endearing fellow and I was happy to chat with him. With my trail instruction pretty well dialed I set off. I was tired (been really tired lately, like, the feeling where you can shut your eyes at any time of the day and fall right asleep) but settled into a good rhythm quickly.
The trail rose gradually in most places, even descending in others, and I made quick work of the trail leading to Andrew's Glacier. Like the trail description I read beforehand suggested, the turn from Glacier Gorge to Andrew's Glacier wasn't well marked and I spent some time shuffling around a campground where I toilet sat just beyond in a pretty awesome clearing. Yeah, like, just a throne there in the middle of nothing else. So cool. Backtracking a bit, now in a steady rain, I ran into a couple ladies who chatted with me about finding the turn. I went back and found it pretty easily. Not wanting to slip and kill myself on the slick, soaked rock, I wondered how I far I was going to make it toward the glacier. Fortunately, only about ten minutes of forward progress was met by a breaking in the clouds and brilliant blue sky and sun again. Yes!
Ahead the glacier and its pass looked within sight and I wondered if I should just go for the loop mentioned above. I was making slow work of the trail by now as the steepness rose and the rock was bigger and bigger boulders. I ran into another threesome coming down who said they'd been hailed on and looked a little concerned when I suggested I might summit and then try for the loop.
I crested a rise just beyond and was suddenly faced by Andrew's "Tarn" - tarn means "lake," I found out later. This deep aqua blue water was breathtaking against the couloir just beyond filled with snow. To my left was the famous Shark Tooth spire (a famous climber's route I'd read about it later). Stunning scenery was all around me though the clouds were beginning to return. I kept going up thinking I'd at least get to the true summit of Andrew's Glacier but hail and black clouds came in just as fast as they'd left not even an hour ago.
Choosing safety and knowing I now had a new route to tackle soon, I retreated down the slow talus and boulder route I'd taken. Hail fell continually for the next 45 minutes as I descended, again missing my way at the Glacier/Andrew trail junction, finding myself back at the toilet until my Suunto and its GPS navigation convinced to me to keep trodding along what I swore was the incorrect way.
Now the sun was coming back again in spurts, lasting mostly the whole three miles back to the start. I finished the run with nearly 11 miles in my legs and 3,000 feet of vertical. I waited only about ten minutes for the shuttle to arrive and begin the shimmy back to my Mini. The same driver who picked me up originally from Beaver Meadows was at the wheel again for the return. We slowed to see an elk and his "harem" and the many cars pulled over to take pictures. The driver was crotchety but said something that made me laugh out loud as we drove past the scene, "Now this is nature: the mingling of wildlife AND homo sapiens. Boy."