Mt Alice

It's hard to choose just a few photos to tell the story of an amazing day of hiking to Mt Alice. We started from the trailhead at 3:15am. Headlamps lighting our way, we covered the first 7 miles before we breakfast, stopping at Lion Lake #2 for our first taste of sunshine.

.Lots of snow still lingers at the high lakes this year.

Above us rose Mt Alice, looking incredibly imposing.We hiked the classic loop hike - up hourglass ridge on the north side of the mountain, and down the south side to Boulder Grand Pass. 

From the summit, the views are stunning as you are surrounded by other peaks that are 13,000 to 14,000 foot high. McHenry's, Chiefshead, Longs Peak, and Mt Meeker stand out along the north.

Feeling that we were truly on top of the world, we spent an hour on the summit, with a marmot for company. We didn't see another person until after 3pm as we headed back into the more heavily traveled area around Thunder Lake.

We descended the gentler south slope to Boulder Grand Pass, where we were treated to a flyover by two fighter jets. It felt like we could reach out and touch them as they grazed the pass and then dove into the canyons. Straight down the pass to Lake of Many Winds where the snow was still thick, but the wildflowers carpeted the areas that had melted out.

The difficult part of the hike was now over, but there was still a long way to go to get back to the trailhead. 

We reached Thunder Lake and the main trail in time for an afternoon snack, where we were able to look up at Mt Alice and see all that we had accomplished. A perfect day, a perfect hiking group, and a perfect destination.