I was expecting there to be some fresh snow on Saturday morning as I drove up to Rocky early in the morning. As I headed through Pinewood Springs, I encountered a light dusting of snow on the roads as well as coating the trees. Things were looking favorable for some nice winter conditions, with one exception. The sky was clear and the stars where bright and shining in the calico sky. When I left Erie, there was fog and clouds, but by the time I gained some elevation west of Pinewood Springs, the clouds and fogged cleared.
Dropping down into the Estes Valley all looked clear. Longs Peak was cloud free as was the Mummy Range. Entering Rocky Mountain National Park and heading over Bear Lake road through Moraine Park, I saw what looked like a hint of clouds over Hallet Peak and Otis Peak. Just enough of the cloud cover from the previous nights storm wrapped over Hallet Peak and the Glacier Gorge area. The wind was picking up so I opted not to head up to Dream Lake to be blown across it’s icy surface and toyed with by the wind. Instead I hightailed it over to the Bierstadt Lake trail, slapped on my Yak Trax and hiked up to the top of the Bierstadt Moraine for the view of Otis and Hallet Peak. The first rays of the morning illuminated Hallet and Otis in a beautiful pink hue. Wind’s wrapped the clouds over and around Hallet and Otis making the trek to the top of Moraine the place to be to view the show.