Estes Cone 1/25/06

We had a picture perfect day to hike up to Estes Cone. Alan had been part way up, but I had never been before. The trail begins at the Longs Peak trailhead and splits off to the right after a half mile. The you lose a lot of elevation over the next mile and a half before you turn back left after Moore Park. It was nice at the time, but after summiting and hiking back you dread going up again. We could have used snowshoes, but didn't need them.
Right before you have to hike straight up, several trails split off at a hitching post. A trail leads back to Lily Lake, and Storm pass. There was a very cool rock on past the hitching post off the trail that is worth climbing up on. It gives you a sneak preview of the view from Estes Cone. The last part of the trail is very steep. It is marked with cairns and we lost it a couple of times, but were following some snowshoe tracks. For a while all we had to follow were coyote tracks. The summit is a huge rock with boulders piled all over. You hike around to your right and climb up a crack, kinda like a staircase then hop and jump over the to the summit highpoint. Another hiking group told us that the previous Sunday they could see Pike's Peak. The weather was fantastic! We had virtually no wind, it was unreal for the mountains. Probably 40 degree temps too! It is 6.4 mile hike round trip. An awesome moderate hike.