Estes Cone

We hiked Storm Pass and Estes Cone in RMNP from the Storm Pass Trailhead on June 16, 2009.  We renamed this hike the "hell hike."  Everything was fine until we got to the sign shown below which said that Estes Cone was only .7 mile away.  Initially, we only planned to hike Storm Pass, but got to this sign and thought, "Hey, it's only .7 of a mile, we might as well do it."  Little did we know...That last part was a whole bunch of boulders and rocks, and we felt like we were hiking straight up. Well the hike to the end of Storm Pass was only a 840 foot incline in 4 miles.  That last little bit up to the top of Estes Cone was an additional 1300 foot incline.  In less than a mile.  This made for a grand total of 10 miles roundtrip and a 2023 foot incline.  Nonetheless, we had fun, but were quite exhausted when we were done.