Rabbit Ears Peak
Every time we drive by Rabbit Ears Peak we talk about going in to check it out, but we never did. This time we were going to see what was up there, and after we finished Buffalo Pass we bundled up for a windy and chilly drive on the highway between the end of that trail and the start of Rabbit Ears Peak. We were really looking forward to it.
There were lots of people parked at the parking area, and that made sense. We hadn't seen as many people over the Labor Day weekend that we were expecting to see, but it looked like this trail would be where we'd find a lot of people. We were already aired down, so we headed up right away. We decided to do the eastern section first.
There were quite a few hikers, but it was in the afternoon and almost everyone was headed back to the trailhead. It's too bad that there isn't a separate hiking trail for the hikers so they don't have to share with vehicles. But everyone was friendly so it was a good trip.
The optional section of rocks was fun, and we enjoyed the excuse to use four-wheel drive. We hadn't really seen any rocks the entire day, so it was a very welcome section. No one took the bypass.
We stopped at the wide spot before the last, steep climb to the top. We had heard there was no parking at the top, so we thought this was the end of the line. A few of us hiked about halfway up to check out the views, and then we came back down. Mike wanted to check out the rest of the trail, so he drove up. He found there was enough room to park a few vehicles and turn a few around, and it was good to find that out. No one did the little hike around the rock, though, to save a bit of time.
We worked our way down with the only other vehicle we saw on that side of the trail. The rocks were fun on the way down, too.
When we got to the intersection we turned up to go check out the other side. It was quite different than the eastern section. Some parts of it were so smooth and with such a gradual incline it almost seemed like an old railroad bed. It was a nice drive, and the scenery was pretty.
We drove to the end and saw a carsonite sign with a tiny bit of yellow on it. We knew that was probably a "road closed" sign even though it was on the side of the trail instead of in the middle of it. Mike found the old sticker that used to be on the sign, and it was a "road closed" marker like we had guessed. We found lots of room to park and turn around. Roger stuck a stick in his spare tire where he had punctured it on Farwell Mountain, just to confuse the drivers who would be behind him.
We headed back down and saw a few vehicles. Still, passing was easy and we had no issues. When we got near the end there was a wide spot where we pulled off to air up and get ready for the trip back to Denver. It really was a great weekend.
