GC1W0ADAndrews Glacier
Type: Earth
| Size: Other
| Difficulty:
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By: Me & Bucky@
| Hide Date: 07/16/2009
| Status: Available
Country: United States
| State: Colorado Coordinates: N40° 17.289 W105° 40.776 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0
Rocky Mountain National Park is located west of Estes Park and north and east of Grand Lake. This is a fee area of the National Park Service, and costs $30 per vehicle. This fee is covered in the Rocky Mountain National Park Annual Pass, the Rocky Mountain National Park/Arapaho National Recreation Area Annual Pass, and the America the Beautiful Pass. Please see the following website http://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/feesandreservations.htm for the entire fee schedule. The park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Road and Trail Conditions and Closures can be found at: http://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/road_conditions.htm. Recorded information for the condition of Trail Ridge Road can be found by calling (970) 586-1222. Please remember that all geologic features within the borders of Rocky Mountain National Park are protected by law, as are all natural and historic features. Please do not disturb, damage, or remove any rocks, plants, or animals.
Parking for this EarthCache is at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and the hike is up a well-marked trail. The trailhead parking area may be filled in the summer, and shuttle bus transportation is available at the Bear Lake shuttle bus parking area. Prepare for a strenuous hike. Your one-way journey will be about 5.2 miles with an elevational change of 2,200’. The starting elevation is approximately 9250’, so bring sunscreen for the bright sun and extra water for the dry air. Afternoon thunderstorms are always possible in the summer months so plan accordingly.
Many of the features in Rocky Mountain National Park were formed by the actions of glaciers. This EarthCache will take you to one of the few remaining glaciers in the Park, and will give you the chance to participate in watching as the glacier expands and recedes.
The glaciers which currently exist in the Park are found only in special circumstances: they are only at elevations above 11,000’, and are primarily in north- or east-facing cirques which help to protect them from direct sunlight. Is it windy during your visit? Likely it is, and the wind is from the west. There is a relationship between the direction of the wind and the location of the glaciers in Rocky Mountain National Park. The glaciers in the Park receive the majority of snow as wind-blown snow, and are therefore called “wind-drift” glaciers.
True to form, Andrews Glacier resides in an east-facing cirque at the head of a wide, U-shaped drainage. The snow for this glacier falls on the western slope of the Continental Divide and is blown over the col which forms Andrews Pass. Andrews Glacier is one of the glaciers in the Park which is actively moving. Glaciers in the Park which do not move are considered “stagnant” glaciers.
It is currently not known whether Andrews Glacier is growing or shrinking over the long term. Even in normal years there are fluctuations to the cycle of expansion and reduction of the size of Andrews Glacier. The glacier may expand over time by receiving more snow in the winter, or by undergoing less snowmelt during the summer. Conversely, the glacier may shrink by receiving less snow in the winter or by undergoing greater snowmelt during the summer.
The logging requirements for this EarthCache will help us to watch the progress of Andrews Glacier as it expands and recedes on a yearly basis. My visit to the glacier was in late June, and the coordinates given above are for the edge of the glacier at the point at which the path on the south side of Andrews Lake intersected the glacier on the day that I visited.
To log this EarthCache, complete the following:
1.) Follow the path around the south side of Andrews Lake and take an averaged coordinate reading where the glacier intersects the path. If your GPS receiver will take averaged readings, please take the average of at least 50 readings; if it does not, take the average of at least 10 waypoints taken at the glacier’s edge.
2.) Take a picture from the location at which you took your coordinate reading.
3.) Take a picture to the west from N 40 17.316, W 105 40.702 which includes the full glacier. This will show the extent of Andrews Glacier from the eastern end of Andrews Lake on the day of your visit, and these pictures will be able to be compared over time.
4.) When you log your find, post your averaged reading in your log and include your pictures. Other pictures of your hike and your visit to Rocky Mountain National Park are most welcome!
The above information was compiled from the following sources:
2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. In Harris, A.G. et al., editors. Geology of National Parks, Sixth Ed. P. 337-356. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Cole, J.C., and Braddock, W.A. 2009. Geologic map of the Estes Park 30’ x 60’ quadrangle, north-central Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3039, 1 sheet, scale 1:100,000, 1 pamphlet, 56 p.
Colorado Geological Survey. 2003. Messages in Stone. Matthews et al., editors. Denver, Colorado.
Hopkins, R.L., and Hopkins, L.B. 2004. Hiking Colorado’s Geology. Seattle, Washington: The Mountaineers. 240 p.
KellererLynn, K. 2004. Rocky Mountain National Park. Geologic Resource Evaluation Report. NPS D307, September 2004. Online at: http://www.nps.gov/romo/parkmgmt/upload/romo_geo_overview.pdf
Rocky Mountain National Park. Online at: http://www.nps.gov/romo
Rocky Mountain National Park was most helpful in the background discussion, aid in the choosing of sites, and review of this EarthCache. My thanks to the Park for allowing the placement of this EarthCache!
09/18/2018 By magashi 40°17'17.67"N, 105°40'49.57"W 40°17'17.58"N, 105°40'49.42"W i got a few, there was a little strip and then the actual glacier, so i wasn't sure where i should get the reading from. or the glacier just split, because it's a shrink year? i had my microspikes with me so walked around on it for like half a minute and then was ready to leave - the wind was a little too hurricane-ish for me!
08/01/2018 By PackSux After visiting Sky Pond, I made my way over to Andrew's Tarn for the two Earthcaches, and then hiked back past Lake Hiyaha to the Bear Lake trailhead. A long hike for me, but totally worth it for all of the things I got to see. The glacier's edge was at N40 17.286 W105 40.800 on the day I visited. TFTC!
08/17/2017 By Mrs Scothog I was looking for interesting earthcaches in the area, and couldn't resist the chance of seeing a glacier! I'd seen them in Iceland last autumn, then Kilimanjaro in January, so a North American glacier would complete the set nicely.
Having read the logs, I didn't fancy finding my way here by myself, so I got in touch with Kirk's Mountain adventures in Estes Park and organised a guide to take Scotkit senior and I to this spot.
We were collected at 6am (last spot in the Glacier Gorge car park!) by Dan who was a very awesome guide. He wanted to be BACK down at The Loch by about 11am to avoid lightning strikes, hence the early start. There were a few people around at 6:30am - one was curious about the micro-spikes we were carrying in case we had time to climb the glacier. Andrews glacier was clearly an unusual destination - Dan said that he'd only ever had 3 people ask to get here.
It was lovely to wander by Alberta Falls and then up to The Loch. Being from Scotland where ever body of water is a loch, the name seemed odd! We stopped here for a snack before following the path to the crossing of Glacier Creek where we had to turn off the main track.
The path got smaller and smaller from this point but it still went through lovely woods with view of streams and waterfalls. Soon though we ended up on a boulderfield that Scotkit senior thought was wonderful, but I thought was horrendous. Dan was pushing us on so that we'd get back down to the trees in time for thunderstorms, THEN we met a huge scree slope. Ugh!
So, eventually we got across the scree slope and the boulderfields to the base of the final push up to the tarn. We were really feeling the altitude by now and I huffed and puffed all the way up.
It was so good to finally see the tarn and the glacier!!
In a hurry to get the coords for the end of the glacier, we left the microspikes and GPS beacon in our backpacks at the moraine lip, but we stood on the glacier for a photo anyway. Someone was coming down the glacier as we stood there, and we'd met a couple of people who had left at 4am to hike over Hallett and down to the tarn.
The glacier edge was at N 40 17.271 W 105 40.799
Still conscious of the time, we headed back down the steep slope - we'd seen two people ahead of us who looked SO tiny from the top, and returned by the valley floor which Dan thought would be a swamp, but turned out to be OK - FAR better than those boulderfield and scree slopes!
Lunch at The Loch gave us a second chance to record the earthcache answers there, and we also had time to get up to Mills Lake for the EC there.
An epic, epic day - Dan from Kirk's Mountain Adventures was a fabulous guide, with lots of information about the plants and animals, and delighted to be able to log this earthcache!
TFTEC, FP awarded, greetings from Scotland!
09/09/2015 By The Speis 7th of 7 on the day w/ Tubymundo. On the day of our visit the glacier edge was at: N 40 17.286 W 105 40.806 At the base of the glacier we ran into a couple who had hiked Taylor Peak & then glissaded down Andrews! Hanging out at the base of the glacier was much nicer than at the beating winds at the edge of the tarn. Lori also finally spotted a pika at the base of Andrews Glacier. We had heard them chirping at us for most of the climb up & finally were able to spot one of the sneaky buggers. Thanks again for placing these caches which pointed out this great hike to us. TFTC
07/26/2015 By icezebra11 Today I made the wonderful hike into Glacier Gorge and to Andrews Glacier. When I arrived at 7:45 am at the Glacier Gorge parking area, all the spots had already been taken but the ranger said spots were still open at Bear Lake so I ended up parking there. The weather was absolutely gorgeous! I was enjoying myself so much I missed the turn to head up Andrews Creek and ended up at Timberline Falls before I realized what I'd done. That sure added to the elevation gain unnecessarily! So I backtracked down the trail and found the trail I needed to take. After a short ways I got to the end of the trees and came upon the sign for the restoration. Just after that is where I strayed off course again and ended up too high and traversing across the boulders and talus. I apparently did what EstesLynne said some other hikers had done when she was here. Eventually I made it back onto the trail and slowly made my way up the steep moraine. Once I reached the crest of the moraine, the tarn and the glacier were quite breathtaking!
I used my GPS to obtain the necessary measurements of the moraine for Andrews Tarn and then headed for the glacier and got the length of the tarn. At the glacier I marked the point for the Andrews Glacier cache using Waypoint Averaging to 100% on my Garmin 450T. The coordinates I got were N 40 17.284, W 105 40.777. I've attached the required pictures and a couple others.
While waiting for my waypoint averaging to complete, I heard voices up high. Looking up I saw three people on the glacier and they glissaded down to the tarn. It was pretty cool. Then I headed down the gorge and eventually to the parking area.
Thanks Me and Bucky for these wonderful earthcaches, without them I don't know if I'd ever had made it to this beautiful spot!!!
10/08/2014 By sciguy2 A group from the Anthem Ranch Hiking Club hiked up to The Loch and a few of us decided to visit Andrews Glacier as well so I took the opportunity to pick up two more of your wonderful Earth Caches. It was a beautiful day though we did have a bit of snow to clamber through as we scaled the moraine.
Andrews Glacier
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