CO Road-trip 2012: Day 8

We woke up to a dusting of snow on our car and the ground and overcast skies. I was a little worried that the weather would not cooperate for our planned hike into the Indian Peaks Wilderness. After getting our things together, loading up the dog, and keeping our fingers crossed we drove west out of Boulder along CO-119 before stopping at Boulder Falls. It is only a short hike back to the waterfall from the road. We had the waterfall to ourselves and spent a bunch of time taking pictures and videos. This waterfall is not very tall, but it is unique for its shape and its surroundings. The creek splits at the top of the falls and then slams into a large boulder half-way through which throws the creek forward before plummeting the rest of the way. The surrounding rocks are very interesting and the low clouds added still more interest to the scenery (as well as helping with lighting).When we finally left the falls we quickly drove out of the fog and found clear blue skies at the higher elevations, similar to what happened the previous day in RMNP. We arrived at the Long Lake trailhead in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area and started our hike with only a few other cars in the parking lot. We quickly came to the Indian Peaks Wilderness boundary and the shore of Long Lake but didn't take the short side-trail to the lakeshore. We continued on hoping there would be views over the lake as we went. There weren't any but it was a nice walk through the trees with a little bit of snow on the ground. Beyond Long Lake the trail begins to climb and we had some pretty nice views of Apache Peak and the surrounding peaks.We crested a hill just under 11,000' and got our first glimpse of our first destination-Lake Isabelle. Navajo, Apache, and Shoshone Peaks were front and center in the view over the lake with the Isabelle Glacier partially visible tucked behind Shoshone Peak. The lake level was pretty low and we were able to access a peninsula at the eastern end of the lake that is usually submerged. This brought the peaks even more front and center. After spending a little bit of time here, we headed back down to the trailhead. At Long Lake we took a side-trail for a short distance before realizing that the views from Lake Isabelle were much better and turned around.From the Long Lake trailhead we drove just a little bit to the NE to the Mitchell Lake trailhead. We decided that since it was a little later in the afternoon than what we wanted it to be when we got to this trailhead that we would only hike to Mitchell Lake and not Blue Lake. So we headed off for a second shorter hike up through the trees. We quickly came to Mitchell Lake with Mt Audubon (over 13,000') overlooking. We followed a use-trail to the outlet at the eastern end of the lake and enjoyed the view for a few moments before walking back down to our car.After the hikes we headed back down to Boulder and found that the clouds had risen to almost the elevation of Brainard Lake over the course of the day. In Boulder Canyon, the effect of the snow and clouds made for some interesting scenery. Back at the hotel, we once again walked to the Pearl Street Mall and then had dinner at the Boulder Cafe. I had the Alpine Fondu and B had Gumbo and Bruschetta. My fondu came with apples, bread, vegetables, sweet potatoes, and chicken sausage. B had food envy. The fondu was superb. We each had a drink and headed back to the unusual store to browse a bit and laugh at the glow-in-the-dark dinosaur posters, wind-up flipping pigs, and popping caps (almost hit someone on the other side of the store with one of these). Back at the hotel, we once again jumped in the pool and hot tub before calling it a night. Sometimes it's a pretty tough life we live. For the day we drove a grand total of 69 miles.