INTO THE BLUE
The
goal for Thursday was to get in one last dayhike before starting our
backpacking trip the following day. The
destination I picked was the Blue Lakes, in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness
northwest of Ouray. The Blue Lakes are reputedly
among the most beautiful lakes in Colorado.
Based on the photos I found online, they looked like a must-see.
The
hike is fairly substantial, and we still had to drive to Durango, get groceries
and raingear for J Bob, and pack for the backpacking trip. We got up at first light, broke camp, and ate
cold bagels in the car. Fortunately our
rental car’s resident mouse hadn’t gotten into our breakfast the previous
night. Early in the trip we had gotten
into a bad habit of leaving the trunk and car doors open while we were
unpacking and packing the car. At some
point we picked up a rodent, which got into some of our groceries. We noticed this the previous afternoon, but were
hopeful that the mouse had moved on.
The
drive to the Blue Lakes Trailhead, on the north side of the wilderness, was
pretty quick and exceptionally scenic.
It featured great views of Mount Sneffels (14,150’) and some outrageous
fall color. We made a brief detour to a
primitive camping area to use an outhouse before driving the rest of the way to
the trailhead.
There
were several cars in the parking area, but they had clearly been there
overnight. Because of the early hour and
the high elevation, it was downright cold.
We gathered our gear quickly and hit the trail. We reached a fork almost immediately, and
stayed right for the Blue Lakes.
The
hike was mainly a steady uphill grind through a dark pine forest. There were a few views along the way, along
with the occasional aspen grove. We also
passed above a couple of waterfalls, which added to the beauty of the hike.
All
of that was nice, but this was a destination hike, and what a destination it
was! We arrived at Lower Blue Lake
around 11am. The lower lake is as
beautiful as I expected. The water is a
brilliant blue, a shade that is typically only seen in lakes fed by
glaciers. There are numerous campsites
scattered throughout the woods surrounding the lake. Surprisingly, those campsites were all
deserted when we arrived.
J
Bob and I decided to continue on up to the upper lakes. Getting there requires a steep climb from the
lower lake. Bob J was content with the
lower lake, and decided to relax there while we extended the hike.
The
climb was a bit of a grunt, but it was worth it. First we used a fallen log to cross the
stream draining the upper lakes. A few
minutes later we passed a cascading waterfall.
Then we crossed an impressive talus slope and reached the first aerial
views of the lower lake. This was the
highlight of the day, as it was much easier to appreciate the colorful water from
that vantage point. In fact, I
eventually abandoned the trail together in search of a better vantage point for
photos. I strolled along the grassy
ridge above the trail, eyeballing the alpine gem far below.
I
eventually rejoined J Bob in a meadow between the middle and upper lakes. These lakes were nice, too, even if their
water was more green than blue. The best
part of the upper lakes was the view of rugged Mount Sneffels directly above. I was tempted to extend the hike further, to
Blue Lakes Pass, but knew that we didn’t really have the time for it.
We
headed back down by the same route. When
we returned to the lower lake we found it much busier than when we had
left. There were quite a few other dayhikers there, but we found Bob J without much
difficulty. The hike out was relatively
uneventful, though we did pass quite a few other hikers on their way in.
We
drove back to Ouray, and continued south towards Silverton and Durango. We found outrageous fall color just south of
Ouray. At one point I simply swerved the
car over onto the shoulder so we could take it all in. The surrounding mountainsides were a
brilliant gold, the deep green of the scattered pine trees merely emphasizing
the gold of the aspens.
We
drove to Durango and stopped at the Hampton Inn, where we had
reservations. Or I thought we had
reservations. While we were attempting
to check in I discovered that I’d accidentally made our reservation for Friday
night instead of Thursday. Oops. I hastily checked our other reservations, and
verified that I had everything else correct.
Unfortunately, the hotel was sold out for the evening. However, since I have a certain degree of
status with Hilton, there were able to find us a vacant room. The bad news was that we had to pay for it –
I had cashed in points for the original reservation. The room was expensive, but not outrageous
once we split it three ways. Luckily I
was able to get my points refunded, too.
We
took showers before running our evening errands. I dropped J Bob off in lively downtown
Durango to shop for rain gear. Bob J and
I then picked up the rest of the groceries we needed for our 8-day backpacking
trip. J Bob’s final attempt at shopping
for rain gear was more successful, and we picked him back up on the way back to
the hotel. We ordered a pizza for
dinner, and spent the rest of the evening organizing our packs for our trip
into the Weminuche Wilderness.
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