Colorado - Summer, 1997

Monday - August 4, 1997

We left Prairie Grove around 12:15 pm after attending John Blakemore's funeral.   We ate lunch at Siloam Springs then headed west through Tulsa, Oklahoma.  About 10 miles east of Morrison, we developed radiator problems. While we were sitting by the side of the road, a state trooper stopped and directed us to a radiator shop in Morrison.  The owner called his daughter in Stillwater and she picked up a replacement radiator for us.  After a few hours we were back on the road, but the temperature light kept coming on.  We stopped to check on it and discovered that it was the temperature sensor.  We made it to Blackwell, OK where we spent the night in a Comfort Inn.  Not a very good day.

Tuesday - August 5, 1997

Mike got the temperature sensor and thermostat fixed at a Texaco in Blackwell.  We left Blackwell around 10:00 am.  We headed north through Wichita, Kansas then turned west on I70 at Salida.  We stopped and ate supper in Limon, Colorado.  We ran into a rain storm at Colorado Springs, but it cleared off as we headed west on highway 24.  We saw 2 large groups of antelopes between Wilkerson Pass and Hartsell.

View from Hwy 24 close to Hartsell

A rock formation close to the highway

We got to our cabin at Win-Mar Cabins around 9:00 pm.  Theses cabins are 2 miles north of Granite.  Our cabin was a 2 bed, one room kitchenette at the junction of highways 24 and 82.  The Arkansas River was across highway 24 from our cabin.

View of the mountains from in front of our cabin

Wednesday - August 6, 1997

We got up fairly early and went into Buena Vista to get tourist information about hiking and fishing and to buy fishing licenses.  After that we went to Cottonwood Lake and fished some, but it started raining so we headed back to the cabin.

Eric and Mike fishing at
Cottonwood Lake

Another shot of Eric and Mike

A view of Cottonwood Lake

Scott fishing

Scott

We ate lunch and rested before going to Twin Lakes to fish.  We caught 4 rainbow trout before we got so cold we had to leave.  It was pouring rain most of the time.  We went back to the cabin.  We had trout as part of our supper.  It was a dreary, rainy day just about all day.  We did enjoy watching hummingbirds at the feeder outside the window of our cabin.

Thursday - August 7, 1997

The day began cloudy, but began rapidly clearing off until it became partly cloudy the rest of the day.  It had snowed on the tops of the tallest mountains during the night.  All the 14,000 foot mountains had new snow on the top this morning.  We went to the west end of Twin Lakes and hiked the Little Willis Gulch trail.  This is a fairly steep trail up the side of Quail Mountain.  There were several breathtaking views of the Twin Lakes from this trail  We saw some beaver ponds, bear tracks and a doe mule deer while on the trail.

Lake Creek

Eric trying to catch fish in the creek

Mike and Eric on the trail

Bear track

Mule deer in the aspens

View of Twin Lakes from the trail

Eric and Mike

Mike

Mike hiking up the trail

Scott at the top of the trail

After this we headed back toward Buena Vista so we could drive to Mineral Basin.  However, the road was so bad we had to turn around about 1 1/2 miles from the basin.  We were very disappointed.  We did stop on the way back down the mountain where there was a small stream.  Scott and I looked for minerals while Eric fly-fished.  Eric caught a brook trout using the fly-rod.  As we were continuing down the mountain it sleeted on us.

Mineral Basin area

We stopped at Cottonwood Lake on the way out to look for mountain goats.  Mike spotted a herd of about 20 high on the mountain south of the lake.  These were the first mountain goats we had ever seen.

There are mountain goats on the side of that mountain

Next to Cottonwood Lake

Scott video taping scenery

After supper at the cabin Mike, Scott, and Eric went fishing in the Arkansas River across the highway from the cabin, but caught no fish.  This was a good day.

Friday - August 8, 1997

Our last day at Granite.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  We hiked a part of the Colorado Trail that goes up to about 12,000 feet on Mt. Yale where there is a basin containing 2 small lakes.  These are called Harvard Lakes and contained brook and cutthroat trout.  From the point where the trail intersects county road 36 where we started our hike to the lakes was 3 miles, so we hiked 6 miles round trip, not counting the walking we did around the lakes. 

Scott at the trailhead

A view of the stream from the trail

A view of mountains at the beginning of the trail

At the beginning the trail was extremely steep with some spectacular views of the valley and mountains to the west

A view from the trail

Another view from the trail

A third view from the trail

Eventually we came to the top of a ridge on the mountain and walked around to the east side of the mountain.  The trail leveled off some, but basically gained in elevation all the way to the lakes.  Some points on the east side of the trail offered good views of Buena Vista and the valley it is contained in as well as a view of Mt. Princeton.

View of valley with the road we took to get to the trailhead

 It took us 2 hours to hike up to the lakes.  We ate a picnic lunch then the guys fished for trout while I walked around taking pictures.  Mike, Scott, and Eric all had pretty good luck catching brook and cutthroat trout.

Eric fishing on upper Harvard Lake

Eric

Eric catching a fish

Eric with his fish

Scott fishing on lower Harvard Lake

Scott

Scott with a fish he caught

Eric on Lower Harvard Lake

Eric

A view of Lower Harvard Lake

Mike fishing on Lower Harvard Lake

Scott

Avalanche fingers on mountain by
Upper Harvard Lake

View of Upper Harvard Lake

 We stayed at the lakes about 2 1/2 hours before walking back down to the car.  It only took us about 1 1/ 2 hours to hike back down the trail.

Scott on steep part of trail 

 

Steep part of trail

Scott, Eric, Mary on trail on way back to car

After returning to the cabin for supper Mike and Eric went to Twin Lakes to fish.  They caught several fish before returning in a couple of hours.  Scott and I got things ready so we could leave early in the morning for Boulder.  This was a great day.

Saturday - August 9, 1997

We got up and left WinMar Cabins to head to Boulder by 7:30 am.  The drive up to Leadville then over the mountains to Golden, Colorado was beautiful.  We went over a couple of high passes, through several tunnels, by a couple of skiing communities, and by Clear Creek stream into Golden.

Mountain north of Granite

Mountain close to Leadville

Rock formations near Fremont Pass

An old mine near Fremont Pass

We arrived at Boulder at the University of Colorado campus just in time for the 10:30 information session and tour. We then met with Colonel Routsala (AFROC).  The Uof C campus was pretty and unique because of the building style.  It obviously is a good university, but is very expensive for out of state tuition.  After finishing at the U of C campus we ate lunch then drove to Burlington, Colorado to spend the night.  We ate prime rib at a place called the Hoof and Horn then spent the night at a Comfort Inn.

Sunday - August 10, 1997

We left Burlington early to head on home.  It rained about half of the time until we got to Salina, Kansas.  We ate lunch at a Braum's in Salina then headed south on I135.  We arrived home at 7:30p m tired and glad to be home.