Brainard Lake

About an hour away from Boulder is a trailhead at 10,000 ft elevation. We had to choose one of the few rainy mornings to go hiking (I have to add that the next day was beautiful blue skies all day), but we just packed out rain gear and wore out jackets to brave the cold autumn weather.

The hike was beautiful, even with the low hanging clouds. I could just imagine how much more beautiful it would have been with a clear blue sky.

The trail was pretty easy going most of the way, moving through the trees from one lake to another.

We made it to Lake Isabel, but the lake was apparently "drained." We weren't quite sure what that was about, but the ranger had told us about it when we arrived at the trailhead. Sure enough you can see that there's not a lot of water there, but it still looked cool.

Look how low those clouds are. You can't even see the mountain tops around us. If you look at what you can see of the mountain, you can notice a light dusting of snow...that's all new snow. How exciting- winter's coming!

 We stopped at the lake for a snack and some group photos. Left to right is Daisy (black lab), Laura, Lisa, me, and Jeff.

We went a bit farther, but eventually met frozen precipitation and turned around.

Not a lot of pictures, but what can I say? I couldn't see too much with those incredibly low-lying clouds. It turns out that it doesn't matter what kind of weather you have--how cold it is or how rainy/sleety it is--a  hike is still a great hike with the right people.

Winter Park

Saturday morning was a day for most people to nurse their hangovers. I couldn't find other students to hike with, so I went with Debbie, Art, and guy named Roy who is joining the department in the summer.

We started at a trailhead just down the road: Berthoud Pass- elevation 11,307 ft.

We were headed up to the Continental Divide, but to get there we had to hike uphill. It wouldn't have been a strenuous trek at 5,000 ft, but at 11,000 ft it took only a few steps to get out of breath.

 Once we were through the trees, we could clearly see the point we were heading for. Just had to get to that point and the trail was going to level out.

The trail zig-zagged up to the top of the hill. We were high enough to be near the lingering snow. It wasn't close enough for me to touch, but I still saw it.

Once at the top there was a sign telling us where we were. Sadly it didn't tell us our elevation, but we were definitely somewhere above 12,000 ft.

And we had a photo session:

The view was already beautiful, as you can see behind us. And looking over the peak, there was snow and a cute collection of ponds.

We were up so, we could see so far. I could even see the highest peaks with new snow on their peaks.

We continued along the ridge, which was (as promised) mostly level with a few hills.

How much more beautiful can you get?

We continued walking along the ridge until about 11:30am.

Then we turned around and headed back to the resort. On the way down I found some pretty flowers. The mountains always have some of the coolest flowers.

We managed to make it back in time for the talks, but barely. So many people left that night, leaving me this beautiful apartment all to myself.

Sunday morning was just as beautiful as Saturday morning. The mountain towns of Colorado- they are sure a great thing. Jealous?

The house on the left is the lodge where all the talks and meals were. I'd call is a pretty successful weekend.

Goodbye Winter Park!