Mileage: ~7.5 miles
Elevation gain: ~2,450
Difficulty: Moderate
Type: Out and Back
Wildlife: Marmots
Two mountains of similar appearance side by side is appropriately named. Twin Sisters is the view you get when hiking up the beginning of Long's Peak. Hiking up Twin Sisters, you therefore get great views of Long's Peak. I've been wanting to do this hike for quite awhile ( along with many other hikes) and seeing as I plan to do my first 14er soon, I thought this would be a good beginner training hike.
I arrived pretty early so as not to worry about parking or afternoon thunderstorms. The trailhead is across from Lily Lake and up a bit along a dirt road.
You will see some signs indicating when you cross over into Forest Service Lands versus Rocky Mountain National Park.
The trail starts off through wooded forest. It is a gradual incline with some nice somewhat level breaks in the beginning.
There is a damaged area that you'll reach up the trail. There are orange flags along the way that you'll want to follow to keep on track. It gets quite a bit steeper here as well.
It's not long before you see some breaks in between the trees with a viewing of Long's Peak just across the way.
An aspen tree stands tall and mighty.
As you travel farther up through the forest, you can tell that you're getting closer to breaking above treeline.
At some point along the way, I round a corner and out comes a "Wow" in awe of the space that has just opened up upon me. This is what the hiking and hard work is for.
From here, it becomes quite rocky as you switchback across the mountain towards the sisters.
You can see that you are not far now, but there is still a bit of uphill to go.
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| There's a marmot camouflaged in there somewhere. |
A little rescue cabin.
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| Second rocky peak |
I take a break in-between the two mountains, deciding which one I want to go up first. I decide to go towards the right of me as it looks easier and less rocky. I summited around 10:30. The first and easier peak by the rescue station has a shorter climb and a more defined trail to the top. This also means it has more people on it. When I first arrived there weren't too many people on the summits, nor on the hike itself. After awhile on the summit though quite a few more people started arriving, so I left and went over to the second summit. The second summit was quite a bit more difficult as it was mostly a rock scramble and no trail. You will want to be careful on this one. Both summits have great views of Long's Peak. It seemed that a mad rush of travelers started coming in, so I finished enjoying the view and headed on back down. In most of my travels, it appears that a summit before 10 am is the best way to avoid the crowds.
Here are a few photos from the summits.
Close up of Long's Peak.
This is the marker from the rocky summit to the left.
The weather remained bright and blue for the whole hike.
Also, I forgot to mention there were two marmot sightings, one just before reaching twin sisters and one on the top of the first peak.
On the drive out there is an inn by the name of Baldpate that has a room full of keys. It is an interesting stop on your way out.
And here is my tracker. Although it says slightly less than 7 miles. I find that the gps on my phone may not always be exact, but it's close.
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