GC2AD7J The "home of the gods"
Type: Traditional | Size: Micro | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Denali41 @ | Hide Date: 06/15/2010 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 22.509 W105° 27.709 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
           

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CONGRATULATIONS TO kipster11 FOR FTF!!

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From the summit of Mt. Olympus (elevation 8,808 feet) one has a unique view of Rocky Mountain National Park--made truly remarkable because Estes Park and Lake Estes provide the near perspective, 1,200 feet BELOW, while the Park’s mountains begin their rise above the town up and up to the high peaks along the Continental Divide and to Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker. But in my opinion, the views to the Northwest are the gripping ones; almost the full reach of the towering mountains comprising the Mummy Range can be seen advantageously from the top of Mt. Olympus. So allow your mind’s eye to compose a picture of the entire community of Estes Park below you, rimmed by all these splendid peaks as well as by the startling abruptness of the crags of Lumpy Ridge in the foreground.

You’ll want to visit this special location for more reasons than finding the cache! Bring friends. Bring a lunch. Settle at this peaceful summit for a while and relax and enjoy the spectacular scenery laid out all around you. Thereafter, it will be indelible in your mind. Take a map, and play with identifying the individual peaks of the eastern half of RMNP. It would be difficult to find a better vantage for doing that, than the summit of Mt. Olympus! Then, after you’ve soaked it all in, sign the summit register. It’s right at the top. It’s not the cache.

To find the cache you’ll need to backtrack a bit down the faint trail marked by fairly frequent rock cairns. The summit of Mt. Olympus is on private land, while the geocache is on U.S. Forest Service land north of the summit. The cache is a camoed pill bottle, and it should be easy to locate. It’s about 5 feet south of twin fir trees, tucked under the south edge of a flattish rock, adjacent to a clump of grass. Be careful on your descent. Some of the terrain is quite steep, but is no more than Class 2. Enjoy your outing, and have fun logging a cache that if properly planned and followed will require about 2 miles round trip, and about 1,400 feet of elevation gain.

And recall Greek mythology. Mt. Olympus is the "home of the gods". How did you feel up there?

08/04/2016 By Libertarian Lad
After a hard day yesterday, I slept in, relaxed, and then decided, I will go do Mount Olympus. Hiked up from Route 34, or should I say climbed and scrambled. My GPS recorded a terrain distance of 4900 feet to the peak, and an elevation gain of 1355 feet. This is an average grade of 28%! Got my workout. At the peak, terrific 360 degree views, despite the overcast day. Easy to identify so many places I know in the area from this vantage. Two Peregrine Falcons buzzed me and then left. How do I feel? Un-godly. TFTC.

08/04/2016 By robuster91
wow what a hike up the views were amazing thank you for placing a cache in a wonderful spot with a veiw now to hike down back to the car tftc tnln

02/28/2016 By tinytuttle
I had done some caching while in Estes this weekend, and we decided on the way back to take the Glenhaven route back when I noticed this magnificent landscape feature to our SE , what a awesome location for a 360 panoramic view from atop this structure. The photo's on this cache page look just amazing, I need to put this one on the "TO DO" list Thanks Steve for the placement of this cache and look forward getting up there!

08/21/2015 By EstesLynne
Path Pacer and I (plus, as she said, her dog) headed uphill...and uphill...and uphill to this one today. It was definitely a bit of a slog at times, but we made the round-trip in about 3.5 hours, including some quality time at the top. What a view!

We tried to replicate the famous Enos Mills view, although we weren't sure exactly where that was taken since we didn't have a copy of the original with us. Still, it was way fun hopping around up there, signing the register, finding and signing and re-hiding the cache, and enjoying the day. We definitely wished there hadn't been a pall of smoke from the Western wildfires in the valley. We could just barely see the peaks along the Divide, although Lake Estes and the town were reasonably visible.

I've thought about trying for this cache for some time, but didn't want to do it solo for safety reasons. We emerged uninjured, but there are places where it's steep and footing is a little dicey (no, don't try this in flip-flops). Still, it was well worth the trip and a favorite. As PP also said, we're used to spectacular views since we live here...but this was still special. Thanks!

08/21/2015 By Path Pacer
What a nice hike! EstesLynne and I (plus dog) started from Hwy 34 around 8:30 and reached the summit a little over an hour and half later. Sometimes we were following cairns and sometimes not, but basically we kept to the left of a direct route. Great view of Estes, but it would have been truly gorgeous if we didn't have all that smoke right now. Still, we had a lot of fun exploring the top and taking pictures. Signed the register, of course (register needs a new container, if anyone wants to take one up with them).

We hit the cache on the way up. It had rolled downhill a little and was also pretty damp, so we dried it out, added a pencil and a pathtag, and put it back where we thought it was supposed to go.

We got a little sidetracked on the way down, but Lynne had tracking on, so we found our way back eventually, then we hit the benchmark by the bridge on the way home.

We had a great time today going up that mountain. Normally I wouldn't have all that much to say about it since I live around here and nice views from mountain tops are a dime a dozen, but this one was special. Thanks for giving us an incentive to do it!