Hike #37 2021
July 4th, 2021
Another day, another hike! This hike took us to a pair of lakes surrounded by steep rocky mountains. Since Scott is still away, I chose to do a hike very familiar to us and one we’ve done frequently. I was curious to see the wildflower progress up in this area, especially after all the early spring moisture we had here in Colorado.
We began our hike at 5:45am. Despite it being summer, the temperature was hovering in the mid 30s when we started. However it warms up quickly once the sun comes over the mountains, so we took advantage of the cold weather.
There were several other cars in the trailhead parking lot, but I could tell I was the first for the morning due to all the other cars being frosted over. This is a popular overnight location for many people, us included, but today we were just there to day hike. Since I was presumably the first person on the trail that morning, I made quite a bit of noise (usually clapping my hands) walking through the trees. This area is home to a large moose population, and the last thing I want to do is sneak up on one!
I was a little surprised by the lack of wildflowers in the valley (shown above), but as we began our climb up the switchbacks, more and more wildflowers began to make an appearance.
There were many little fields of Indian paintbrush, and seeing them made me excited for what flowers may be up at the lakes.
Gradually we began to leave the thickness of the trees and were able to see the surrounding mountains.
Up until this point we had not seen any moose, though I knew with certainty we would see at least one on this last home stretch to the lakes. As we continued to walk, to my right was a couple ladies who had camped overnight, they let me know that there was a pair of moose just around the next bend on the trail. I walked just a bit farther and was able to see a female moose eating just off the left side of the trail. To avoid any sort of bad encounter, I went off the trail to the right and gave her plenty of room. As I was passing I could see a bull moose laying down in the trees watching us pass. Fortunately both moose seemed very relaxed and not bothered by me passing, which isn’t unusual here since they’re fairly used to humans, sometimes sleeping right next to tents! I was also impressed with how good Maxi and Zeus were passing them.
No pictures of the moose this time.
After our brief moose run-in, we made it to the lakes! At this point it was warming up quickly, so the dogs and I spent 10 minutes relaxing, then took some pictures around the lake and in the flowers, and then heading back.
By the time we made our way back, the two moose that were near the trail had since moved. Maxi and Zeus were still able to smell them though, so we continued cautiously. We did come up on them and another bull moose once more, but they were farther off trail drinking from a small pond. We watched them from a distance for a few minutes.
We hiked 8 miles with 1,318 feet of elevation gain and we were happy to be back at the car before it started to get too hot!