Hiking Twin Sisters near Estes Park, CO

I thought I was going to die but I made it to the summit. 🏔️

In the fall of 2022, we spent a good amount of time (about 6 weeks total) in Estes Park, Colorado, and just fell in love with the area. We are owners with Hilton Vacation Club, and we have several resorts around the world where we can choose to stay and use points to book. We’d been watching and waiting to get a good deal at Historic Crags Lodge in Estes Park, and things finally went our way, and we were able to book a total of 6 weeks. We were thrilled!

Anyway, while we were there, we really got to know several of the staff well and spent quite a bit of time with them.

One day, we were visiting Bob and talking about fun hiking adventures when he told us he loves hiking Twin Sisters and that we should definitely do it. I use the AllTrails app (which I HIGHLY recommend), so I looked up that trail and thought — this guy is crazy! I can’t do that. It’s rated as “hard,” and it’s 7.4 miles.

We had never done a hard-rated trail, and the longest hike we’d ever done at that point was right about 5 miles. I’m no spring chicken (I was 50 at this time), so I didn’t want to attempt something too complicated. Haha!

Some pics of us early on when we were still excited about the adventure. lol! ©Donetta Dalman

But Bob convinced us that it wasn’t a bad one at all and that it was worth it. He said he hikes the trail a couple of times a week. (And I should mention that he told us he was in his early 60s, so I’m thinking if he’s older than me and says it’s not bad, maybe it’s okay.)

Let me say this: AFTER we did the hike, came back, and told Barb about it, she couldn’t believe he'd told us to do it and called it a crazy suggestion! Bob is obviously in WAY better shape.

From what I’d seen, the average hiking time for this trail is about 4–5 hours, but of course, that very much depends on many factors, so that’s a good guess at most. Since we knew it would be a longer day than usual, we carried plenty of water and packed a meal and snacks, so we'd have the fuel to get the job done.

It’s a good thing we did because I am obviously not average and we did NOT finish this hike in 4–5 hours. In fact, it was just over SEVEN hours from the very start to our truck again. We hiked 8.5 miles, gained 2,234 feet, and reached the summit at 11,399 ft. It was quite. a. climb!! 🫢

We started the day early and were on the trail by 7 am. Later, we said we were SO thankful we didn’t wait any later in the day to get started, since it took us all day! Not to mention, we didn’t have to worry about getting too hot because it was 32º when we started!

This hike was challenging as we encountered a massive incline the whole way up. We’d come around a corner, and I’d think we were almost there, and then I’d see the path and realize we had so far to go still. At one point, James asked if I needed to stop and turn around, but there was NO WAY I was going to spend that much of my day and give that much energy to something and NOT finish it, so we kept going all the way to the top.

As a side note, I have to give a quick shout-out to my husband because, while this was a challenge for him as well and he was sore and exhausted by the end, just like I was, he is SO much more skilled and is always quicker and able to climb inclines much easier than I am. But he is ALWAYS so patient, hikes at my pace, and never makes me feel bad for being slower or having a harder time on the hard spots. Sometimes I feel guilty, like I’m holding him back, but he always reassures me and reminds me it’s about enjoying the journey, not how fast we go, which is so true. It’s not a race at all.

Made it to the summit! ©Donetta Dalman

We arrived at the summit a little before noon, so we sat at the top, enjoyed the views, had a snack for lunch, and rested for a while. I can tell you I’ve never felt so accomplished or so proud of myself as I did reaching that summit. It just goes to show how strong we can be and what we can achieve when we push ourselves further than we think we’re capable of going.

Even though coming down was easier than going up, when you’ve been hiking all day, and you’ve gone that many miles, even going down a mountain is hard. Especially when you’re old and you have bad knees.

Thank goodness for my hiking poles!! Those help so much. The last couple of miles (or more! haha!) we also had to keep chanting to ourselves that we were going to get BBQ at the end at Smokin’ Dave’s BBQ — our favorite restaurant in Estes Park. We had to have something positive to think about to get ourselves down that mountain without keeling over and being stuck there forever. (And by “we” I mostly mean me. lol!)

We finally made it back to our truck mid-afternoon, threw our gear in, and took off for BBQ. We were SO ready to sit and eat a great meal. After sitting in the truck for only 10–15 minutes to get to the restaurant, it was hard to get out and walk! 😭 We were SO sore! In fact, it took a couple of days of literally lying around in our room, doing little to no movement, to recover. It was a killer!

But in the end, it was so worth it. Would I do it again? Absolutely not. 🤷 But I’m SO glad I did it that day. The views were incredible! And I accomplished something I never would have dreamed I could do. I’m so proud of myself for that.