A fantastic hike up to Emerald Mountain with a great group from Madison, Wisconsin. A few clouds meant that we weren't too hot for a change. But we also didn't get rained out - lucky after yesterday afternoon's gully washer.

 Unfortunately, the gully washer produced a sneaky sinkhole in the valley we walked up. Before I could get the words out "Don't follow me!", the next shoe had sunk in about 12 inches.

My hike was cancelled today, so I took advantage of the day off to try an unofficial trail I had heard of. I hiked up to Calypso Cascades on the trail, and then followed the stream up to Finch Lake. The stream is full of little waterfalls and pools, with plenty of tall chiming bells draping the sides.

Finch Lake was so calm when I arrived - not a breath of air. It was just me, a mother mallard and her 8 ducklings.

And then it was back down the rushing stream, lost in my own thoughts.

Tanima - this day was amazing. A 4am start from the Y, but I fortunately only had to meet up with the group at 4:45 at Wild Basin. We travelled up the trail 6.2 miles to Thunder Lake fairly quickly, and then the real fun began.

After breakfast at Thunder Lake,  we headed further west towards Lake of Many Winds and Boulder Grand Pass. Chiming Bells were blooming everywhere along the way.

The wind was incredibly strong all morning, but it created some beautiful early cloud formations. Fortunately, the storm clouds of the last few days were not forming early.

I broke the streak of finding dwarf columbines on this hike, but there were plenty of pale white columbine scattered throughout the rock fields.

Lake of Many Winds is already pretty high up to the pass. When you looked back, it appeared to be perched on the edge of nothing. And, yes, it lived up to its name.

From Lake of Many Winds, we looked up to Boulder Grand Pass, the steepest part of the ascent. The path goes just to the right of the high snow field, where you can choose a rock climb or some nice, loose scree.

Smiling at the top of Boulder Grand Pass, but bracing against the gale force wind. We all wore helmets on this section just in case a rock might be dislodged by another hiker.

Our happy group at the summit of Tanima with Longs Peak in the distance: Dana, Scott, John, Chris, me, Glen and Carl.

The view across to Longs Peak was incredible. There was another Y hike over there today, so we had the binoculars out and could see the little bodies walking along the narrows and making their way up homestretch.

A new destination was on the books for today. Skirting the south side of lumpy ridge, we passed through beautiful meadows with a view of Longs Peak. Following the stream, we wound our way to McGregor Falls in Black Canyon.

Our group at McGregor Falls

It's hard to beat a beautiful day at Chasm Lake, nestled at the base of Longs Peak. The hike is worth every foot in altitude that you gain on the way up the trail. The clouds were down on the plains again today, but the high country was clear.

On the way up to Chasm Lake, we passed by the gorgeous Columbine Falls. At this time of year, there is no doubt why the name was chosen. Columbine were growing in every rock crevice near the falls.

 I'll spare you the other 20 photos of columbines, but they were spectacular. And for my third time in three hikes, we spotted dwarf columbine. So much for never having seen them before.

Our group at Chasm Lake - Glen, John, Susan, and me (and muneca is hiding on John's shoulder)

I haven't been up to Shelf and Solitude Lakes in a few years, and what a beautiful day it was to do it again. The top photo is Shelf Lake.

And when you hike up just a little further, you are rewarded with Solitude Lake, surrounded by Arrowhead, Powell, and Thatchtop.

Tommy and Theresa were celebrating their anniversary today. And it just happened to be Richard's and my 27th anniversary as well!

It is still as steep as I remember once you leave Glacier Creek, but once you get out of the trees along Shelf Creek, you are rewarded with magnificent views up Glacier Gorge of Longs Peak, Pagoda, and Chief's Head.

Hikemaster Tom was leading a hike to the lakes as well, and he showed me a new route down that passed by Shelf Falls which were absolutely beautiful. My buddy Katy joined us on the trip.

Today we hiked the gorgeous loop hike that goes from Bear Lake to the Fern Lake trailhead, stopping at Lake Helene, Lake Odessa, Fern Lake and Fern Falls on the way. The best part is that it is mostly downhill! Lake Odessa certainly looked different than when I was last there on June 2nd - bushwhacking on snowshoes. Only small snowfields remained on the section between Lake Helene and Odessa.

Instead of crossing a snowbridge like last month, the outlet stream is in full flow, bounded by countless flowers.

Finally, after 25 years of hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, I was rewarded with a sighting of dwarf columbines. There they were, right along side of the trail, above Lake Odessa, I nearly walked right by them. Other special flower sightings on this hike - Star-flowered pyrola, brownie lady slipper, tons of twinflower, white bog orchid, spotted saxifrage, spotted coral root, parrot's beak just starting to bloom, moss campion, parry's and fairy primrose.

Our group at Fern Lake (with muneca).

After a couple of unseasonably rainy days, the sun was back out in force for our hike up Mt Audubon in the Indian Peaks. Cool temperatures accompanied us all day, but there was only the slightest of breezes at the summit, making it hard to pick up our packs for the return trip.

The wildflowers were once again incredible up on the tundra. Alpine Avens were carpeting any open area of tundra that wasn't already occupied by another flower.

Don, Peter, Margot and Dan at the summit of Mt Audubon. Blue sky and puffy white clouds meant we could relax and contemplate an afternoon nap in the sun.

Old Man in the Mountain was everywhere on the slopes, along with plenty of Sky Pilot. Big rooted spring beauty was blooming in every rock crevice in the talus on the final push to the summit. Others blooming: forget-me-not, fairy primrose, moss campion, phlox, alpine pedicularis, alp lily, columbine, chiming bells - what wasn't blooming?

What a beautiful way to celebrate the 4th of July. Clouds were low and ominous in Allenspark, but we decided to head out for our hike anyway. Within two miles, we were above them and into the brilliant sunshine. We had decided to create the Wild Basin grand slam - Thunder, Snowbank, Lion #2 and Lion #1. It was well worth it. Retreating snow left acres of glacier lilies. Above is Thunder Lake.

Last month, it was the Calypso Orchid I was searching for. This month, it is the Brownie Lady Slipper. I was so excited to see the first one, and then realized they were were everywhere in the last mile before Thunder Lake.

Glacier lilies dotted the trail on the way to Thunder, but between Lion #1 and #2 there were masses of them.

From this little pond sitting on a bench near Lion Lake #2, we could look down the valley and see the clouds below us.

Snowbank Lake is the highest of the lakes in the Lion Lake drainage. Mt Alice dominates the scenery here.

As we hiked back down from Snowbank to Lion #2 and then Lion #1, the flowers were breathtaking. I've been up here many times, but never seen them like this.

Today I hiked to my first summit of the season. 10 of us set out from the trailhead at Milner Pass, negotiated a steep mile through the woods, and then popped out onto the tundra for another 3.5 miles to Mt. Ida. The wind chill made for a cool day, but we were rewarded with a calm spot to have lunch at the summit - something that never happens! Fortunately, although the clouds kept building, they were passing to the north and south of us.

These first two photos are from the summit - the top one (with Jim and Judy) looking southeast towards Longs Peak in the background, the second one looking west at the Never Summers.


On the way down, we were extremely lucky to spot a ptarmigan nest. The mother had been sitting on the nest doing a great job of camouflaging her spot. We just happened to get a bit too close, and it was only after she flew off the nest that we saw what lay beneath. A few quick photos, and we moved far away so she could resume her job.

The early tundra flowers were exceptional. Carpets of forget-me-nots dotted the landscape, as well as fairy primroses and alp lilies.


And just to make it an even more memorable hike, we saw three big horn sheep as we were hiking back along the tundra to the trailhead.