Flattop Mountain is an epic hike, a real highlight when visiting in Rocky Mountain National Park. It sounds a bit intimidating, considering the elevation gain,
but with the real early start, we were at the top of the mountain by mid morning. That gave us plenty of time to climb to the top of Hallett Peak. It is only a little more
than half a mile from the top of Flattop over to the summit of Hallett, but it is a bit of a boulder scramble getting all the way up Hallett. Certainly the views at the top
made it worthwhile. We met a couple from Switzerland at the top, they were spending 3 weeks touring all through Colorado. I wouldn't mind spending 3 weeks touring in Switzerland!
Our weather was great, which was fortunate because there is a lot of open exposed terrain up on the mountains. We passed a warning sign beside the Flattop Mountain
trail warning people to turn back in bad weather. Bad things can happen quickly when the summer thunderstorms strike.
On our way down the mountain, we passed a lot of people coming up. It was Labor Day, after all. Nice to see so many people enjoy such a nice day by visiting Flattop.
Instead of walking back to the parking lot, we decided to head over to Bierstadt Lake. We ended walking for a mile or so with a couple from Missouri. They own a home in Estes Park,
and spend several weeks each summer in Rocky Mountains. They told us some stories about people getting hit by lightning and falling off of mountains. The week after we left Colorado is
when the epic flooding struck Boulder and Fort Collins area; hopefully their home was spared from those terrible flood waters.
This is a copy of the official Rocky Mountain National trail map for the Bear Lake region. I highlighted in red the route we took, first up to the
top of Flattop Mountain, and then beyond to the summit of Hallett Peak. On our way down, we went a couple miles out of our way to visit Bierstadt Lake.
From the top of Hallett Peak, I attempted to take a full 360 degree video of the entire vista.
If your browser pops up a box at the top of your screen asking for permission to run the Quicktime video, or at the bottom of the screen asking permission to run ActiveX content, click the OKAY to permit the Quicktime movie to run. If you see a big blue Q, the video content is still downloading from the website. When an image appears, double click to start playing the short movie.
On our hike back down Flattop Mountain, we stopped again at the Emerald Lake Overlook. The lake was sparkling in the sunshine, so I captured the effect in this brief video.
   
   
   
 
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Flattop Mountain Photos
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