Christmas Day Showshoeing Trip to Mills Lake
Danish people are weird. Danes don't follow the rules. Danish people say screw the tradition of waiting for Christmas morning to open presents, just get it over with on Christmas Eve. And that's how every December 25th my family gets free range to a mostly deserted RMNP while everyone else enjoys their festivities at home. After a breakfast of biscuits and gravy packed from home, me and my mother headed to the Glacier Gorge parking lot to enjoy the fresh snow and visit Mills Lake.
There isn't much to note about the routine venture to Mills Lake, whether the trail is covered in snow or not. However, a few points about winter trails:
-The Fire Trail was very well packed and therefore obvious to pick up after the second bridge. Everything is right where it should be. We saw two groups along the way.
-The Mills Junction-ish winter trail(which is generally parallel to the Fire Trail through its entire duration) was also fairly obvious near the first bridge. I didn't explore it at all, though from the rock bench on the Fire Trail I was able to look down into the creek drainage and see a packed trail amidst the trees. We didn't see the southern terminus, which likely confirms my suspicion that it actually spits you out on the unmaintained trail to Lake Haiyaha a few hundred feet north of Mills Junction.
-A winter shortcut from the Glacier Creek bridge to Mills lake also exists, though I again didn't follow it. The bits of it I saw simply follow over top of the creek. Keep an eye out for frozen Glacier Falls along the way, it's a nice spot in the summer.
There isn't much to note about the routine venture to Mills Lake, whether the trail is covered in snow or not. However, a few points about winter trails:
-The Fire Trail was very well packed and therefore obvious to pick up after the second bridge. Everything is right where it should be. We saw two groups along the way.
-The Mills Junction-ish winter trail(which is generally parallel to the Fire Trail through its entire duration) was also fairly obvious near the first bridge. I didn't explore it at all, though from the rock bench on the Fire Trail I was able to look down into the creek drainage and see a packed trail amidst the trees. We didn't see the southern terminus, which likely confirms my suspicion that it actually spits you out on the unmaintained trail to Lake Haiyaha a few hundred feet north of Mills Junction.
-A winter shortcut from the Glacier Creek bridge to Mills lake also exists, though I again didn't follow it. The bits of it I saw simply follow over top of the creek. Keep an eye out for frozen Glacier Falls along the way, it's a nice spot in the summer.
