Memorial Day Weekend in Colorado?

Snow free during Memorial day means lower altitudes – most any area in the higher mountains will have snow that time of year. Using Rocky Mountain National Park as an example, a loop like the Black Canyon-Cow Creek-Gem Lake loop will be snow free for sure (this loop is only 12 miles though, but with options for side hikes). Places like Cub Lake will probably be snow free, but you may have some snow just a little higher at Fern Lake or Bierstadt Lake depending on the year. Higher lakes closer to the Divide like Odessa Lake will definitely have snow most years.

Also remember acclimatization – if you are not acclimatized and coming from sea level, most people need a few days to get used the the elevation, even moderate elevations of 7000 – 9000 feet.

Goose Creek loop!

The goose creek loop sounds good.

Anybody know what kind of temperatures I can expect in the backcountry next weekend?

Thanks

It’s looking like highs of 52-55* F and rain all afternoon Friday through Monday (and into the evening on Monday) at elevations from 7500′ to 8500′. Like they mentioned, there will likely be significant snow above 9500′. It is being a pretty wet May for us. I am doing my hiking around Boulder these days, and these are just day hikes. The thought of backpacking in the rain doesn’t seem like much fun to me.

That’s a bummer as when I checked the weather for Colorado Springs it shows 70 and partly sunny all weekend. Guess I’ll pack my umbrella as well.

I plan on bringing microspikes but with the recent snowfall do you think it would be wise to bring snowshoes as well?

We live at 7000 ft on the front range  and just got about 18″ yesterday into this morning. Rain in the forecast early in the weekend. Haven’t  seen mountain totals yet but I’m sure it’s substantial

Jameson, it’s anyone’s guess as to what the upcoming conditions might be. Afternoon showers will be fairly likely, or certainly snow above 9000′. This morning I woke up to 4″ of wet, heavy snow at my place a few miles east of Boulder. My view of the Divide shows a thick blanket of white. Most of the state will have received 10-18″ of new snow with the current system passing through. On the news last night they showed photos of several campgrounds at ~ 9-10,000′ completely snowed in and not available for the holiday weekend. They are struggling to open the passes from Leadville to Aspen and on the Trail Ridge Road in RMNP for Mem. Day.

I wouldn’t want to do any snowshoe outing in steep terrain, due to the high avalanche danger so soon after this current storm. Your Microspikes might be useful for (safe) day hikes, if you can find the right trail. If you will have a vehicle, a good alternative is to check into a motel in Estes Park and do several splendid day hikes, rather than trying to backpack somewhere. I’m sorry to have to tell you all this.

Wow, didn’t realize that much got dumped yesterday! No worries Gary, I appreciate the insight.

Sounds like I’ll pack for the worst, and hope for the best. The one thing you can’t control is the weather. Oh well, hopefully Mother Nature cooperates and I can spend a couple of good days out in the backcountry in some capacity!

Here is a link to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center’s weather station data for the state.  It is a great summary of up-to-date weather conditions, including snow depths.  https://avalanche.state.co.us/observations/weather-stations/

There is a lot of date there, but once you key in on the categories of interest, it’s a pretty useful tool.  A quick perusal shows snow depths at weather stations across the state’s high country (SnoHt on the chart) varying from inches to feet.

I am really, <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>really</span> hoping that our mid-ish/late July trip to Rocky Mtn Nat’l Park isn’t a death march in deep snow this year….  Things will melt out pretty quickly once it decides to quit raining and snowing, whenever that might be.

Jameson, on the news tonight they showed a photo of the Cub Lake trail in RMNP. There was probably 4″ to 6″ of wet snow snow on it. Much of this will likely melt over the next couple of days, but it still doesn’t look like a snow-free trail as was mentioned earlier in the thread. Your Microspikes look like your best insurance policy on this particular weekend.