Route Name: Mt. Royal trail
Start Elevation: 9,086 ft.
Victoria Elevation: 11,737 ft.
Distance: 5.359 mi.
Elevation Gain: 2,637 ft.
Start Time: 9:03am
Junction Time: 10:37am
Summit Time: 11:24am
Junction Time: 11:56am
End Time: 12:53pm
Duration: 3 hrs 50 mins
TRIP REPORT:
Our condo was conveniently located on 2nd Avenue this year which meant the Mt. Royal trailhead was just a short walk up the street. We headed out around 9am this morning with all three of my boys geared up and ready. At the large open area just past the bike path there is a good trail leading to the northwest onto the slope of Royal. This evntually cuts up the hill into the trees and dumps out on the main Mt. Royal trail. Following this shortcut saves you from having to head a quarter-mile up the bike path to the true trailhead for Mt. Royal.
The boys were all 3 improved from there effort on Mt. Royal last year. Luke really needed no encouragement at all on the trail this year and enjoyed talking on the FRS radio. Jonah walked the route up and down himself this year and handled some of the hills better as well. Seth had bad shoes which gave him traction issues but he walked the entire hike himself this year which was a first for him.
When we reached the main junction just a few hundred feet from the top David and I finally got the chance to explore to the left and head higher up the slope. The rest of the group headed on to Mt. Royal's summit. It was good, clear, switchbacking trail past the junction and at points became rather steep heading up the crest of the ridge. Eventually the trail came into some portions dealing with erosion issues but was still easy to follow. At around 11,600 the trail mellows out a bit and is an easy ridge run. Coming into view then is the point that is Mt. Victoria off to your left and a radio tower on the right. We bypassed the radio tower and headed over to the clear point that is Mt. Victoria. From here Peak 1 looms so close but another mile of so of hiking and scrambling is needed to get there. We ran into two other pairs of hikers up here. One that had already done just Victoria. The other that had completed Peak 1 as well. We got the call from Luke when we got up to Victoria that the others were starting down from Royal so we didn't stay long.
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| Pano of Frisco and Dillon Reservoir from above Mt. Royal |
From Victoria we made a quick hike down the trail to catch up with the rest of the group who had already left Mt. Royal's summit. We were able to use the FRS radios to communicate back and forth the whole time. We caught them at the bottom of the first large steep section as it begins to traverse across the slope. The boys all did well descending the rest of the hike. We got back to the condo at 12:53pm, just in time for lunch.
TRACK
This track was taken with the BackCountry Navigator app on my Droid Bionic. We started at our condo on 2nd Ave. and then began from the alternate trailhead at the end of 2nd Ave. This track follows the route up to the trail junction just below Mt. Royal and then on up to Mt. Victoria.
My Track 
PHOTOS
The remaining photos we took are all below:
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