My Colorado Travelings

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

The stakes we carried all the way up were useless. We had to use cord to set the tent up. After that was done, we did a little exploring of the Boulder Field, and looked over the edge to Chasm Lake.
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If you look closely, you can see the outhouses and tents in Boulder Field.




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The view from the tent on the morning of summit day. I felt we got an early start, but there were already hikers passing by who had started at the trailhead.

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The Vaille Memorial Shelter is right by the Keyhole. It's an interesting and sad story in the history of Longs Peak.

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Beyond the Keyhole is the section called "The Ledges."

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"The Trough" is next.

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Up next is "The Narrows."

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The last section is called "The Homestretch."

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

We made it to the top.




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Summit views.













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A shot of the shelter on the way back down.

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One of the coolest things about Longs Peak was one of the other campers at Boulder Field. He was a young man in a wheelchair. He arrived by horseback. It was great to see him up there. I talked to him for a little while. He had just started getting into mountain recreation when he became paralyzed.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

After that, I had a permit reserved for a 6 day, 5 night backpacking trip in the NE part of the park. Pardon my crude outlining job. I started and ended at the Lawn Lake Trailhead, looping up to Lost Lake and hiking cross country back to Lawn Lake.

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A view of Longs Peak from the trail.

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That's all for now, but I'll get the rest up later.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

I spent the first night at Tileston Meadows.










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This was my bear bag setup the first night (it's an Ursack). I got better at hanging it as I went along.

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I spent the second night at Rabbit Ears.







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I dayhiked from Rabbit Ears to Bridal Veil Falls.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

The next day was the hardest day. I hiked up the North Boundary Trail. It was uphill the entire way, with limited views.
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A couple of Elk on the trail as I started out.

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The North Boundary Trail takes you slightly out of the park for a time.

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I camped at Silvanmere. It was the only site I stayed at that allowed a campfire.




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There was a ranger cabin close by, at the junction of the North Boundary Trail and the Lost Lake Trail.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

I spent the fourth night at Lost Lake. After I set up camp, I went exploring the top of the valley above the lake.
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Lost Lake from above.


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The peaks southwest of Lost Lake.

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A tarn above Lost Lake.

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Rowe Glacier. Shortly after I took this, a thunderstorm rolled in. I had to hustle back to camp to avoid the lightning and hail. I had my raincoat with me, but not my rainpants.

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This was the view from camp after the storm passed.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

The next morning was the part of the hike I was most worried about. It was the cross country section to Lawn Lake.
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Looking at where I would head over, from camp the night before.

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Setting off.




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This was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. As I was hiking, a small herd of elk appeared from the start of a valley below me. They noticed me right after I noticed them. We both paused. A few seconds later they ran down the valley.

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The views from the top of the Lawn Lake side of the pass I took were amazing.
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Crystal Lake.

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Longs Peak is the one almost all the way to the left.

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Lawn Lake. It used to be higher, as you can see the bathtub ring around it, but a dam broke (in the 70's I think).

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This is the kind of slope I had to hike down with a full backpack. It was difficult, and I didn't take the best route, but it worked. I don't think I got a photo of the hardest parts, as I was using my hands to climb down.

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Another view of Lawn Lake, from around the base of Crystal Lake.

 

[TripLeader]

-July 2009-

A view of the setting sunlight on a ridge, as seen from my camp that night at Lawn Lake.

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I hiked back to the trailhead the next morning. Overall it was a really great hike, but I was exhausted. I car-camped in the National Forest that night, then headed home.

 

[TripLeader]

Colorado in August 2013

I'm skipping around again from the slight chronological order I had been on for the last couple of trips...
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Here's the details of the trip. I started off by heading to San Luis Peak in the San Juan Range. This was an old dugout on the way there, in the Cochetopa State Wildlife Area.




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Getting closer to San Luis Peak. It took a lot of forest road driving to get there.

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This was my campsite there.

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Hiking up San Luis Peak.

 

[TripLeader]

-August 2013-

At the summit of San Luis Peak.










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Heading back down.

 

[TripLeader]

-August 2013-

From there I went to Mesa Verde National Park, near Cortez, CO. I spent a few days there.
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Long House. I got in on the last tour of the day I arrived.

 

[TripLeader]

-August 2013-

More of Long House.




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Spruce Tree House, named after the tree that had to be climbed in order to access it when it was discovered.

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The ruins at Far View.

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Looking at the San Juans from Mesa Verde.

 

[TripLeader]

Cliff Palace.







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Balcony House, named after the balcony shown in the first photo. That is the longest complete balcony found in the park.







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This is the exit to get out of Balcony House. It's pretty tight. You have to climb a steep wooden ladder to get in BH from the other side.

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I hiked out to Petroglyph Point. A ranger was out there. He pointed out a clan symbol on the rocks. It was a person with a snake in their mouth.

 

[TripLeader]

From there I moved on to the Lizard Head Wilderness.




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I had planned on hiking up Cross Mountain. I started early, but by 7:30 a.m. it was raining. I hiked back to camp.
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I went and checked out the city of Telluride.

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From there I headed to the Buena Vista area, to climb Shavano and Tabeguache. This was the view heading to the trailhead.

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Both mountains are best climbed together, as their summits are connected by a saddle. I ran into some wildlife on the way up.

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Looking up at the summit of Shavano.

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On the summit.

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The summit of Tabeguache.

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One of the last things I did was visit the ghost town of St. Elmo. This was the last inhabited building, vacated in the 1940s or '50s I think.

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After that, I headed back home.

 

[TheThom]

Thanks for posting these! I was born in Montrose and after a few decades away I'm moving back to Colorado (Alamosa) this June! This got me stoked all over again.