Backpacking RMNP: Sandbeach Lake (Day 1)

A few problems with planning backpacking trips four months in advance: 1) can't account for weather; 2) can't account for traffic. We were closely watching weather all week and knew that it was going to be bad for launch on Saturday but beautiful on Sunday and Monday.  Plan: take a late start on Saturday, eat dinner BEFORE hiking in and then set up the tents and wait for Sunday. 

We left late on Saturday afternoon and didn't think twice about traffic heading up into the mountains... until we were stuck in a long, long, line of stopped cars.  Oops! C'est la vie.  We waited in line and slowly inched forward until we were headed a different direction from everyone else.

It rained for almost the entire two hour drive to the Ranger's Office but traffic wasn't soooo bad after existing  I-70.  We had dinner in Estes Park and headed into the backcountry was at about 5:30.

Our first night reservation was at Camper's Creek--about two miles up the trail to Sandbeach Lake .  

The first half mile was up with a few switchbacks and the beer made itself known.  The weather was perfect, though. The sun came out and we were dry for the whole walk.

There are moose down there somewhere!  Tucker has become quite a little backpacker. We already knew this about Kenedy.

Along the trail we found our campsite sign and walked through a very overgrown, old forest to set up tents.

Tent's up and it was time to play...and get rid of some of that beer weight.

Day 1 = success!