We really enjoyed Longs Peak. It is grueling but fun. There is exposure but it is not hard. It is fun rock climbing and certainly no difficulty with route finding. We were happy with how we chose to start it out and would recommend it. We have read how busy this place can be so decided a long time ago that we would do it in the middle of the week. We also got an early start by camping at Goblin Forest.

So we got to Rocky Mountain National park around noon the day before so that we could fish one of the creeks in the park. But first we had to go to the Ranger station to get our camping permit and be told all the rules and regulations they like to review. I think you are supposed to get your permit by noon. Took awhile to get through the vehicle line and pay our 30 bucks too even though it was only for a few hours inside the park.

We got a great dinner and then drove back to the Longs trailhead. There might have been 5 cars in the parking lot. We packed pretty light since we didn't need to bring stuff to make dinner. Don't forget your bear bucket to put all your food for the next day in though. It only is 1.2 miles or so and about 45 minutes to Goblins Forest. We reserved a site online maybe a month or less ago. It looked like there might have only been one other group there. I think there is only 6 sites. There is a creek there that is running pretty good right now for filtering water.

We don't usually start 14ers before 4am but this one we decided to because the forecast mentioned possible thunderstorms from noon to 2 so we didn't want it cut it too close. So the alarm went off at 2 and we were on the trail by 2:50. We weren't the first ones on the trail but pretty close. You could look down and see more coming but not many. I had heard so much about the conga line phenomena here that it didn't surprise me too much when I looked up in the darkness once and saw about 20 or 30 lights. My husband and I looked again and realized that the lights were very evenly spaced two by two. Wow, it was a herd of something watching us. I guess mountain goats but do Elk come up there too? They seemed tall. Couldn't see them, only just their glowing eyes reflecting off our headlights.

We got up to the Boulder field at about 5 and the to the Keyhole at 550 after a pit stop at the restroom area. That is an interesting contraption. There was only one tent in the boulder field that I could see. There are several creeks before the boulder field for filtering water so I would fill up before this area! Although right now there is water up high towards the keyhole that might not be so contaminated.

After the Keyhole you head left and onto the ledges. I didn't find them scary but on our way back we passed some people who were quite scared by it. I say just don't look to your right and down and don't trip or get off route. The bull's- eyes make it near impossible to get off route. There was only one that I recall that you can see the one way ahead but can miss the one before it that has you head up first then over to that further bull's-eye. It is about half way or more through and I can't remember exactly where but if you are looking for one and it seems far away then look to your left and up and you will see the closer one. What is the history behind these bull's-eyes? Were there a lot of people getting hurt and so they added them? Takes some challenge out but that is okay because it looks like it could get narly fast if you didn't have those to go by.

Beautiful sunrise and Alpenglow on the mountains. Didn't get a great picture since we were a bit busy.

On to the trough. This was a little slippery for some. The right side has a lot of loose rocks and dirt and up higher is some ice so I elected to go to the left. This was more fun for me because you can climb up stable big rocks. Lots of great hand and foot holds. Not sure many chose that though judging by people slipping and skidding that we saw on our way back down.

The Narrows

The homestretch is certainly way easier than it looks in terms of the steepness. It is certainly taxing at that elevation and after all the work to get there. Fun rock climbing.

Yeehaa! Getting to the top was sweet. The group behind us were so triumphant and happy that it almost brought me to tears. One of them wanted to get there since she was 5 years old and they had tried two weeks before and got turned around by extreme winds on the boulder field. Great job guys!

We got to the summit at 720 so about an hour and a half from keyhole to summit. We shared the summit with only about 7 or so people. It was beautiful weather and we stayed until about 745.

Coming down that kind of stuff always seems worse to me than going up. I prefer to down climb rather than walking down. I just feel more stable and less likely to slip. I am not sure how many people we passed that were heading up, maybe 20 or 30 at most and mostly in the trough. Only once did we have to wait on the ledges for someone to go by first. I can imagine that could suck going either way if there were a lot of people. Remember that one bulls-eye I mentioned before because you can miss it and get lured into going over a rock formation in front of you rather than going down then over. That ledge doesn't lead to anything easy. I think the group in front of us might have done that.

We got back to the keyhole by 930 and hung out there to eat for a half hour. We were not as fast coming down as we were going up for whatever reason. That is pretty typical for us though. Guess we aren't as daring going faster even though we could.

Here are some pictures of the keyhole and boulder field that we couldn't see coming up since it was so dark. It was like a whole new hike to see.

Trail builders were hard at work making trail just below the Boulder field. Such hard work to spoil us! Thank you all.

Cool view of Chasm Lake on the way down. Just below that area is another campground which would be beautiful but a lot longer way to carry your pack.

We did have to stop back at camp to retrieve our packs. Luckily they were pretty much ready as we had taken the tent down, packed up, and hung the packs in the trees early in the morning. I think check out is preferred to be at noon so we wanted to make sure the site was available. I don't think many people get there that early though. We got back down to the car at 130. So if you count the total time (including from the day before, it would have been about 5 hours to summit and 6 hours down with a lunch and leaving camp. As we drove away there were cars parked way down on the road which looked like it added a lot of extra distance and elevation. I don't know if all those cars were there for Longs climbers but certainly you would want to get there early if you aren't camping.

Awesome to get this one done. Just a few more to go!