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I will be heading to the Rawah Wilderness Area in a week and just want to see if anybody has been there recently. What are the snow levels like there right now? and does anybody have any recommendations for things to do inside the Rawah? thanks in advance

Haven't been in there recently, Alex. Was at the southern end of the range on May 28th and there was a shit-load (4 to 12 feet) of snow above 9,000 ft.

Snow levels are very high for the second half of June. If you go, be prepared to deal with snow most of the time. I wouldn't expect to see "normal" summer conditions until maybe the middle of July, and that may be a push. Some snow fell above 10,000 feet Friday night, more fell last night above 9,000 ft. It's not really adding much to the snowpack but it's slowing down the melt.

Most recommendations I would have are for summer conditions- hike, fish and climb. This year, when you talking about going, I'd say skiing might be the best thing to do inside the Rawah.

Sorry if that doesn't fit your plans but I'm afraid that's a pretty close description of the way it is in Northern Colorado this year.

Yup, I second Bill.
Lots of great areas to see up there though. You'll be pretty on your own this time of year too, which is sweet. Be aware there are lots of moose up there, which can be rather aggressive and erratic.

Watch out around the Cameron Pass-Diamond Peaks area, those areas have frequent avalanches. With the new snow Bill said on Friday and a light coating from yesterday I'd be wary.

thank you so much for the feedback! that helps so much! I am leaving for the Rawah tonight and expecting a decent amount of snow. Hopefully I can share some pictures when I come back!

Alex, hope you have an awesome trip! I'd love to see or hear about the trails in the Rawahs when you get back. thanks

John

Curious to hear how things were for you...

spiritualspatula wrote:Curious to hear how things were for you...

What he said......

So there was a TON of snow. We started at the Rawah Trail and ended at the Blue Lake Trailhead. We lost the trail at 9800ft on the Rawah Trail just before the Rawah Bog. We just picked our way through snow drifts (some that were 8ft deep) to Rawah Lake Number 2. Every lake was more then 90% frozen over. Grassy Pass was free of snow, but going down from Grassy Pass to the junction of the West Branch and Rawah Trail was a nightmare. However, the snow was patchy at the fork so you could camp on dry ground. We then hiked up towards Island Lake at camped around 10k in a dry patch. There was some dry ground in the Island Lake area. Clark Peak and Cameron Peak were relatively free of snow. Blue Lake was mostly frozen over and there was lots and lots of snow all around (10-12ft in some places). It was a great trip, but definitely too much snow for what we were trying to do. The bugs were pretty bad in the lower areas though.

I am going back to the Rawah again late July for another 10 day trip (I work for a summer camp and we do extended trips like this). Any other recommendations on places to backpack in in Northern Colorado? Is it possible to do a 10 day trip in the Holy Cross Wilderness? We can't do a trip in Rocky Mountain National Park so thats a bummer. Thanks for the feed back!

Glad to hear you made it through and thanks for letting us know what the conditions were like. Sounds like they were about like I figured. I did the same route that you did last year in the kinder, gentler month of August but last year's snowpack was nothing like this year's.
I'm surprised that you were able to follow through with your plan in spite of the conditions and my hat's off to you for that. I'm guessing you must be in your twenties!!
As far as where to go in late July, the Park Range (Zirkel Wilderness) would be a good alternate though the snowpack there was as least as much as what you found in the Rawah. Holy Cross might be a better choice, Gore range is another.

Good luck!

Bill Reed wrote:Glad to hear you made it through and thanks for letting us know what the conditions were like. Sounds like they were about like I figured. I did the same route that you did last year in the kinder, gentler month of August but last year's snowpack was nothing like this year's.
I'm surprised that you were able to follow through with your plan in spite of the conditions and my hat's off to you for that. I'm guessing you must be in your twenties!!
As far as where to go in late July, the Park Range (Zirkel Wilderness) would be a good alternate though the snowpack there was as least as much as what you found in the Rawah. Holy Cross might be a better choice, Gore range is another.

Good luck!

Yeah its definitely a good route, but we just had a bunch of snow. It would be nice to see the Rawah without all of that snow. Yeah I am twenty, so it makes doing these types of trips a little bit easier. I am actually going to go there again in a week for a another ten day trip. I am hoping a bunch of the snow has melting off. It was melting off alot when we were there and I have been checking the weather and its still been pretty warm in the Rawah.

If anyone has any updates for the Rawah or nearby areas I would appreciate the info!! Thanks

If anyone has any updates for the Rawah or nearby areas I would appreciate the info!! Thanks

Ditto. I won't be heading up the Poudre before you, but do plan to go up to Rawah somewhat soon, so any updates from you would be appreciated. I was just up in RMNP's Wild Basin tooling around and the snow is largely gone (still periodic drifts from 10,200 on up). Waterways are still pretty nuts. Will be back up there this Friday and can update again at that point.

I've done your path in Rawah (sorta), but in reverse. I started at Blue Lake, did Clark, descended to Timber, then went over the pass to Crater, finished at Rawah and then hoofed it down Laramie River road back to my truck. I think I actually might have passed Bill, per his TR. It's probably my favorite place to go, though I'm yet to complete my exploration of the whole area until I knock Shipman Park off.
ETA: The bugs are often heinous in Rawah, it's not peculiar to this year. I've never seen bugs worse than they seem to get around Chambers lake, before you hit the Rawah boundary. One time I was up there I saved some energy specifically so that I could jog that whole length back to the Blue Lake TH.

So it was a great trip. We started on the Mc Intyre Trail (Not "Mac Intyre) and followed Mc Intyre Creek to a lake just below 10k. The bugs were horrible at this camp! Then we went up the ridge and caught up with the Medicine Bow Trail and ended up camping at Mc Intyre Lake. Mc Intyre Lake had big snow drifts still and lots of still water and consequently, lots of bugs. We then camped at Rawah Lake # 4 and that was bug free and only had a little bit of ice on it. Then, we went to Twin Crater Lakes (we had seen a couple on the Rawah Trail that morning saying that the trail was impassible due to snow and this was most definitely not true). The upper lake at Twin Crater lakes was still frozen over surprisingly. We then went up over the pass (hiked Dodad Peak along the way) and went to Island Lake, which still had a few floating ice chunks. I think the mosquito hatch had just started when we got to Island Lake (there were swarms of skeeters) because we had talked to people in the previous days and they had said that there were no bugs whatsoever at Island Lake. We then did Clark Peak from Island Lake. After that, we went to check out Rawah Falls, which were roaring, just below Timber Lake. For our last night, we camped at the fork for the West Branch and Rawah Trails and there were no bugs there.

The wildflowers in the Rawah are amazing right now! That was probably the coolest part about the trip. The stream crossing are still a little bit difficult due to all the recent snowmelt. Let me know if anyone wants specific information about any of the areas that we visited!