Flat Tops Wilderness

Not a particularly famous backpacking destination, but I found the Devil’s Causeway loop trail on AllTrails and it seemed like it would be a good intro hike for a friend who was new to backpacking. No permits are necessary besides a self-registration a mile or so into the trail.

We drove for three ish hours from Denver to get to the trailhead (has pit toilets). The whole way up to the trailhead was gorgeous views of the snow capped mountains!

went in late May. One thing I didn’t account for was the crazy altitude that would mean snow through June! Idiot me.

We knew the conditions would be bad but decided to go for it, but went the causeway-first-direction in case the causeway was iced up and dangerous.

The first mile or so was spotty snow, but afterwards became a full-out snow adventure. We huffed and puffed and got to 500ft from the causeway.

My friend was not feeling up for it, so we sledded back down the mountain on my tent footprint. There were plenty of campsites (pay with cash and self register) at the base, so we headed to one of those.

and camped at the base of the mountain, with the lake in our campsite backyard.

We saw a few marmots popping up here and there and a moose during our drive out of the wilderness area!