Welcome to Rich's virtual trail run of Indian Peaks Wilderness!
Click on each thumbnail to see the full-size image.
It took us a scant 40 minutes to get here by car. The trail starts on a dirt jeep road, and within 100 yards, we're off on our own singletrack, with both TC and I off-leash!
There is water everywhere! We follow a number of crashing streams and are never out of earshot of waterfalls!
TC, of course, is a ham for any pictures!
Our first view of the Continental Divide!
A black dog party! What? You didn't get the notice in the mail??? :-)
TC posing for the camera amid the wildflowers!
We're now in the base of the valley of the Middle St. Vrain Creek.
And finally we reach the Wilderness boundary, and TC and I both have to be on-leash.
And then we head to Red Deer Lake.
This being Colorado, there are Columbine everywhere!
And TC goes for a swim!
And plays in a small patch of snow we were lucky to find!
You'd think that the higher you got, the scarcer water would become! Not so in Indian Peaks Wilderness! As we get higher to the (sometimes permanent) snow fields, we get more and more water... We were crossing streams every 1/10 of a mile for the lower part of the trail; now we're crossing them every 100 yards or less!
Finally, it is approaching 1PM, so we have to turn down -- the daily thunderstorms are building right on schedule!
Our last view from the base of the ascent over Buchanan Pass -- looking down and then up, and then, of course, at the dog!
The rest was down hill -- we made it back to the valley by 2PM and the thunderstorms started... The return trip was unbelievably pleasant with cool temperatures, cloud cover, a small handful of ground strikes well away from us, and a slight drizzle for all but the last four miles...
