RMNP Day 4 - Chasm Falls via Old Falls River Road

Maybe if you live near the Rockies, you don't go winter hiking four days in a row. Or maybe you're more seasoned for winter hiking four days in a row. We are not. But we wanted to make the most of our time, even if it gave us sinus infections. 

Yeah, Day 4 was really pushing it. We weren't physically exhausted, like sore muscles or blistery feet. I believe we have evenings in a hot tub to thank for that. But a day of trudging through driving snow followed by a day of blasting winds is demanding a lot from your immune system.
 

We had our hearts set on revisiting the Old Falls River Road as pedestrians. We drove it in August, when we started before sunrise to see the Perseids and continued up the fluttery-stomach-and-sweaty-palms-inducing switchbacks over the chasm all the way to the Alpine Station. And we vowed to come back again when it was closed to vehicles but open to hikers, snowshoers, and cross-country skiers. 

Based on our experience the day before, we knew the frozen falls would likely be invisible under all that snow. But the views along the road were so spectacular that it was worth it to us to venture that road again. 

Now, this probably would have been a good day for snowshoes. Or cross country skis. We watched a white-haired woman in her 60s, I would guess, truck up the road in her skis and coast back down the hill in what looked like grown-up sledding. Man, was I jealous. Since it was our last day, though, we didn't want to spend our time at the rental shop than necessary to return our rented microspikes. So we went for it in boots and spikes. 

 Some parts of the path were pretty deep. We followed someone else's lead and stuck to the shallower edges where possible. Thankfully, the slope was gradual, because the higher stride was enough of a workout. We kept telling ourselves we didn't have to make it all the way to the Falls, and we'd enjoyed so much of our time already that we could quit at any time. 

But before we knew it, the Falls were just a quarter-mile away! Can't quit now!!

That last bend was the most brutal. As soon as we turned the last corner in the switchback, the wind blasted brutally, cruelly, punishingly. I could feel my sinuses freezing inside my forehead, like a brain freeze triggered from the outside in. I stopped in my tracks and held my hands to my head to warm it out of pain. And when I pulled them away - well, there was the sign. 

We dragged ourselves to the sign. We briefly glanced down the hill at where the Falls would be, too nervous from the day before, when we discovered we were standing on buried ice, to repeat that venture. And we started right back down the road. 

Going down is where you can really appreciate the gorgeous view from the road. As the sun came out, the bright blue sky and dusty red rocks were stunning in their frame of sparkly snow. 

We chatted with another older visitor on our way down, another cross-country skier. He was in his early 70s and had been at it since the 1970s. The only time he feels graceful, he told us, was on skis. I have only just learned to appreciate winter rather for the unique experiences it offers rather than just curse it for being not-summer. And I am encouraged to know I will still be finding grace and joy for years to come, thanks to this revelation. 

Would I do it again? Absolutely. All of it.

More pictures and a bit of blustery video can be found here!