Blue Lakes: the return

Uncompahgre National Forest

DAY 1  |  DAY 2


(map link)

I had trouble getting up until I decided I didn't really want to go back up to the upper lake and then up the pass. Then the morning just seemed to flow as it should. It got me tucked in under my kitchen roof just before the rain started again. I ate breakfast to a soundtrack of thunder, which settled things nicely against going up at all. It cleared up after that, but based on the weather report I'd gotten the afternoon before, it would be a good idea to finish by noon when the heavy rain would start.

Camp site view as the mountain gets some sunshine during a light rain.

I tried to dry things out a little before packing up, but it is always a ridiculous attempt. The wetter things are, the wetter they are all around. The sun is weak in the morning. The time to dry things is out in the open under the noon day sun. Morning under the trees really doesn't work. I shook things out and stuffed them away and then tucked them away in the pack. Things that need to stay dry are inside a compactor bag while things that might be wet live outside just for this reason. Then I headed down the short way to Lower Blue Lake and that massive creek crossing, now with wet boulders. I decided it was time to try crossing in my neoprene socks. Meanwhile, the fish were showing that there is environmental impact to just wading through streams. They were spawning all over the place just below the edge of the lake. It feels late for that, but I'm sure they know when better than I.

The trout swim here and there and encounter each other and thrash a bit. They seem to be spawning.

I tried to be away from the fish as I crossed, but just found more fish. So many fish. As for the socks... they do keep the feet comfortably warm even in ice melt so the lake water was fine. They kept the each step from being just that little bit too painful, but only barely. The non-slip beads on the bottom didn't do a thing to keep my feet from slipping on the rocks, so steps had to be well placed each time. Workable light solution, I suppose? I relaxed by the now uncrowded lake and had a snack, so I guess things could have dried a bit anyway. I still find my shoes and socks to take up to a day to dry if I just barge through streams in them, so that's not going to be my preferred solution for occasional crossings.

Oh, what a beautiful morning. Hard to believe there was thunder to liven up breakfast.

But turn around, bright eyes, and there's rain still in the valley.

With fewer people around, wildlife sightings are more likely. (Mule deer.)

After a while I remembered that this beautiful blue wasn't expected to last and I headed down. It was getting increasingly threatening, but I couldn't help stopping for many things. I only took pictures of a few flowers on the way up/across and there are so many more!

What danger could there be in spending a little time in the massive avalanche chute this time of year? It's just a field of flowers.

Enthusiastic owls claws stretches its petals out.

Leaving behind the peaks that surround the Blue Lakes.

Geraniums still dot the hillsides.

A bright sunflower with, well, a fly.

A flower fly on some lupin.

Lots of larkspur.

I also had a good ponder of a tree I had had to scramble under on the way up and how it just wasn't there anymore. The hardest tree to pass, actually a pair of large ones with a muddy and slick bypass, were still there. Everything else was absolutely clear.

Western red columbines are scattered under the trees.

Tiny flowers stretch high above the mossy covering. (Matte saxifrage.)

A couple Canada violets remain.

As it turned out, the weather machine was wrong. The rain started at 11 rather than noon. It was steady and very much there and I wondered at the people going up the trail, but not so much as those going up it in the thin film of single use ponchos. The rain was going to last longer than the plastic.

There is a wilderness sign for those who enter on the trail.

Once I saw the first mile of trail that I had missed by exploring, I wasn't the least bit sorry I had missed it. It is steep and slipping off the side of the mountain. Admittedly, there were clear signs it was being worked on. Pink flags with instructions were all along the side. Widen here, add steps there. Further down were the added steps. So many added steps. Each one was a slick, debarked piece of wood made slicker by the rain. Probably still better than a slanted bit of mud. This is where the crew had really been working. The trees above were just bonus.

Wild roses line the area.

Improved trail. This is an older section of steps.

A break in the trees to see the mountains getting weathered.

East Dallas Creek.

Very near the trailhead, the trail splits with the Dallas Trail heading off to the east. It connects with a couple other trails. In better weather, I'd have taken it up into Blaine Basin, which looked interesting when looking across the valley. I think that was it. I did still have another day of food packed away. The rain was not predicted to let up. (It mostly didn't.) The next day would be about the same, maybe worse. (Not as bad as Thursday, which included flooding across the exit road, the remains of which were a menace.) In this weather, it would be a general mess of puddles since it is an ATV trail. I walked down it far enough to find it does have a bridge across the creek, then headed back to the trailhead and back along the road to camp.

Trail choices at the Blue Lakes trailhead.

Rain coming down.

*photo album*




©2022 Valerie Norton
Written 28 Jul 2022