Deer Mountain Anniversary Hike (June 5, 2020)

Friday, June 5th, 2020, Susan and I hiked to the rocky summit of Deer Mountain, a 10,010’ foot peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

We hit the trail a little before 6am, and it took us a bit over one and a half hours to reach the summit. We were the first people on the trail that day, and on the summit, which we had completely to ourselves for the first 30 minutes or so. 

View from the summit of Deer Mountain

We took our time enjoying the near-panoramic vistas of Estes Park, Moraine Park, Longs Peak, and the mountains of the continental divide. 

View of Chapin, Chiquita, Ypsilon, and Fairchild mountains

But the 6.5 mile hike, with over 1,000’ of gain was much more than “just a hike” for us — it was also how we celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary.

Susan and I met in early spring of 2002, and our second date was a hike to the top of Deer Mountain. 

For us, Deer Mountain is a very special place, as we got married on the summit on Sunday, June 5, 2005.

Here’s the story of how that came to be.

When we decided to get married, we discussed what we both wanted, and rather than a planning a big complicated wedding with family and friends, we decided on something very personal and private. We decided getting married on Deer Mountain was exactly what we wanted.

Fortunately, Colorado is one of two states that allows people to marry themselves, without an officiant or a witness. All you have to do is get a marriage license, decide on a date, exchange your vows, sign the license, and then file it with the county.

We got our marriage license on May 31, 2005, but we hadn’t actually set a date. As we discussed it, we decided that since we weren’t inviting anyone we could choose to do the hike and get married “on a nice day”. The first few days after we got the license were rainy, so we just woke up each day and looked at the weather.

On Sunday, June 5th, the weather looked great, so we packed our hiking gear and headed into Rocky. It was a beautiful and warm day and we took our time, enjoying the wildflowers, birds, and mule deer along the way. Some mountain bluebirds put on an especially nice show for us.

Mule deer we saw along the trail

When we got to the summit, we found a nice spot to hang out, rested, snacked, and then exchanged our vows, and *poof* we were married!

As we were taking pictures and celebrating, we noticed a group of three women, and it turns out I knew one them — Teri, and when we spoke about what we were doing, she was excited for us, and offered to be our "wedding photographer."

Teri (center), who took a few photos of us, and her companions

We didn’t have smartphones or great cameras then, but we take some snapshots and selfies and we recorded a waypoint with the exact time and location on the GPS device we had. 

Our wedding's GPS location :-) 

We started the hike as unmarried partners, and finished the hike as a married couple. 

Newly married Susan and Mike, with Estes Park in the background

We got back to our car at the trailhead just before 3pm. We went home, cleaned up, and went out for a celebratory dinner at the Dunraven Inn restaurant in Estes Park.

Deer Mountain is a prominent and uniquely shaped mountain in the Estes Park area, and we see it nearly every time we go out or into town. And we always enjoy seeing it from many different perspectives on roads and other hiking trails in the area.

Since our first hike in 2002, and our marriage there in 2005, we’ve done this hike together 8 other times, including one time in the winter. 

Now you know why Deer Mountain is such a dear mountain to us. 🙂💕

Mike and Susan on our 15th Anniversary Deer Mountain hike 

Deer Mountain Winter Hike (Feb 8, 2015)

Susan and I had been talking for awhile about going up to Deer Mountain in the winter, so when this Sunday morning began with clear skies, we decided to grab our gear and head for the trailhead.

We didn't expect a lot of snow on the trail, and figured what there was would be well-packed by other hikers.

As we began the hike at 10:30am, we found the first part of the trail was patchy with snow and ice, and soon we both had our MicroSpikes on.

Horseshoe Park with Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon summits

The trail was pretty much what we expected until we got to the top of the all the switchbacks on the northwest side of the mountain. Then the "social" trail veered off the normal summer trail and for some reason took us more to the north. We decided to correct and had to bushwhack through the snow to head back to the normal summer trail leading to the summit.

Susan on the trail

The going got a lot harder, as there was 12-18" of snow on the unblazed trail, and we were not only post-holing a lot, but finding it hard to spot the actual unmarked trail.

As the snow got deeper we began to talk about whether we should just turn around. As we stopped to discuss, another couple about our age caught up with us by following our tracks, and they seemed to be confident of being able to reach the summit.

Susan decided that if they could do it, so could we, so we took a bearing on the summit and headed mostly towards it, tromping through the deep snow and weaving around trees and rocks.

Us, apparently happy with our decision to go on to the summit :-)

We leap-frogged with the other couple for maybe a quarter mile until they decided they'd had enough and they turned around to head down. We decided to keep going, as we were only about a thousand feet from the summit.

But with no trail, almost 2 feet of snow, steep terrain, and no snowshoes (or gaiters), we were post-holing on almost every step and were getting a lot of snow in our boots.

Finally, we reached the summit just before 2pm, and had it completely to ourselves!

Pano from the summit

We took off our boots and socks to try to dry them out a little, but the damage was done, and we'd be hiking down with wet feet. Not a big deal, as it was a very warm day, but a good lesson about always having gaiters -- and maybe snowshoes -- when we do a winter summit hike!

Mike on the "trail"

The hike down was somewhat easier, as we could avoid post-holing a little by walking in our tracks, and we got back down to the trailhead about 4:15pm.

Susan on the trail on the way down

Along the trail

Here's a hike map and elevation/speed profile.

The red line shows how much we slowed down as we approached the summit!

All the snow and post-holing, especially near the summit took a lot out of us, but we were very happy we summitted. As you may know, Deer Mountain is very special to us, as we got married on the summit in 2005. We have a new goal of hiking Deer Mountain in every month of the year, and this wonderful February winter hike takes care of one of those months!

We've now done the hike in February, April, May, June, July, and August. We'd better get busy on those other months! :-)

Morning panorama from Deer Mountain summit (Aug 2011)

Deer Mountain Sunrise

As part of Mike's quest to photograph early morning light, we left the house at 3:30AM one August day to catch a sunrise at the spot we were married 6 years ago.

Sunrise over the plains, viewed from Deer Mountain's summit

My first hike in the dark, I think our 1 hr 45 min ascent was also a record time for me.

Longs Peak and the Divide with Moraine Park foreground

Deer Mountain will always be a special spot for us, and it was fun be up there in the beauty of morning's first light.

Mike and Susan on the summit with Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon in the background

Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon with Horsehoe Park in foreground