Twin Lakes, Colorado. August 5, 2000 - August 14, 2000

Recap of a trip Eric, Mike, and I took to the Twin Lakes area of Colorado.

Saturday - August 5, 2000

Mike, Eric, and I left Prairie Grove at 6:30 am heading to Colorado.  It was already hot and muggy when we left the house.  We stopped at Hardees in Siloam Springs for breakfast.  It wasn't very good.  When we were going through Tulsa we saw five hot air balloons going north.  It was sunny all day and good driving except for a short shower in Colorado while Eric was driving.  We saw what looked like it might have been a small tornado to the northwest of the road.  Mike saw 2 deer in Kansas and we saw 2 pronghorn together then a group of about 15 pronghorn both in Colorado just before we got to Limon.  We ate lunch at a Burger King outside of Newman, Kansas.  It was not good.  Mike drove until we got to Newman then I drove until we got to a rest stop outside of Colby, Kansas.  Eric drove from there to Limon, Colorado where we spent the night in a Best Western.  We ate supper at the Fireside Restaurant.  It was okay - much better than any other meal we had this day.  After dinner we watched TV until going to bed.

Sunday - August 6, 2000

We got up fairly early, ate bagels at the continental breakfast, and left for Twin Lakes at 8:00 am.  We decided to go through Denver so that we could stop at the Ranger station in Leadville to get hiking information.  However, Mike and I forgot that the forest service office would not be open on a Sunday.  It was a pretty day for driving, only a bit hazy because of Denver.  We weren't able to see Pike's Peak as well as we did last year as we were leaving Colorado.  Eric spotted 2 pronghorn between Limon and Denver and I spotted 3 deer on the north side of Denver.  We got to Leadville around 11:30 and discovered that they were in the middle of their annual "Boom Days" celebrations.  After taking a detour we stopped on the south side of town where we ate burgers at Wild Bills.  This was a good burger.  After lunch we walked six blocks north to the tourist information center where we asked about hiking trails.  We bought groceries at Safeway then headed to the town of Twin Lakes.  Mike and Eric bought fishing licenses and supples at the Twin Lakes store then we headed to Mt. Elbert Lodge and cabins.

Area of Colorado where we vacationed - the star indicates
the location of Mt. Elbert Lodge

 We checked in at the lodge and got to our cabin "Prospector" around 2:30 pm.  This lodge and cabins are just off of highway 81 next to Lake Creek four miles west of the town of Twin Lakes.  Our cabin had 1 bedroom, 3/4 bathroom, and a living room/kitchen area with a foldout couch.  Eric slept on the fold out couch.  Not too far to the west of the cabin was Lake Creek with Twin Peaks Mountain behind.  Mt. Elbert is just north of the cabin.  There were small aspens and flowers around the cabin and a porch on the east side.  There was a hummingbird bird feeder outside the window next to the dining table.  We watched a female Rufus hummingbird feeding and sitting on the branches of the aspen while we ate supper.

Prospector Cabin

Small porch outside the cabin

The bedroom

Living room area and couch where Eric slept

Kitchen - small, but adequate

Some of the flowers

More flowers

The flower garden

Mike and Eric went fishing while I put things away in the cabin.  They saw some trout but didn't catch any.  They also spotted elk on the mountain that is directly south of our cabin and Mike thinks he saw a mountain goat.  We ate taco salad and cheese dip for dinner then Mike and I walked to Lake Creek and back while Eric fished.  It was already getting cool out.  The cabin doesn't have air conditioning, but it didn't matter because it was so cool here.

Eric with Lake Creek behind

Mountain to the south

Another mountain where the guys saw elk

View of a cabin with Mt. Elbert behind

We sat up until a little after 9:00 and then turned in for the day.  We were excited to be back in Colorado.

Monday - August 7, 2000

It's 2:00pm and I am sitting on the bank of Cottonwood Creek while Mike and Eric fish.  Today's excitement started at 4:00 am while we were still asleep.  We heard a huge racket on the front porch just outside where Eric was sleeping.  It dawned on us that we had forgotten to bring our ice chest in off the porch.  Mike thought a raccoon had dumped our ice chest containing bottled water and canned drinks.  However, when he went out on the porch he discovered that the ice chest had been drug off the porch and into the road.  At that point he realized that it was probably a bear.  He figured out for sure that it was a bear when he saw the puncture holes in the lid where a bear had bitten it.  He came in and looked out all the windows shining his flashlight to be sure the bear wasn't too close, then Eric held the flashlight while Mike gathered the drinks and ice chest up to bring in the cabin.  We had all almost gone back to sleep when we heard a noise on the porch followed by a bang on the window above Eric's head.  The bear was back!  Eric yelled at it and it took off.  When he and Mike looked out, they discovered that it had knocked over the empty garbage can which knocked the fishing rods against the window.  We also think it threw over a porch chair that hit the outside wall hard.  Mike brought in all the fishing stuff and we went back to bed.  We did hear what we think was the bear walking on the porch, but didn't see it.  We finally got up for the day between 7:30 and 8:00.  I talked to the people in the cabin next to ours and found out that their trash can had been knocked over and the hummingbird feeder at their cabin had been knocked down and broken.  As I walked back to our cabin I found bear droppings in the grassy area by the cabins.

Ice chest with puncture holes

Bear droppings outside the cabin

 After eating a breakfast of sausage, eggs, and biscuits we went to Cottonwood Creek so Mike and Eric could trout fish.  Eric has caught 5 or 6 good trout so far and Mike has caught one.  The day started out completely clear and got warm quickly.  It has almost entirely clouded over and is now windy and cool.  It looks like it might rain later.  We have been here about 2 hours and it has been nice.  Eric has fished the entire time; Mike has just fished a little bit.  I've walked up and down the creek bank primarily.  Eric ended up catching about 12 trout this day in Cottonwood Creek.

Eric fishing on Cottonwood Creek

View of mountain from fishing spot

Mike fishing the creek

We left the creek around 3:00 pm to head back to Buena Vista.  Just west of Buena Vista I started smelling hot brakes.  Mike pulled over and found that the right brake was over heating.  We made it to a tire/brake shop in town where the guy told us the brake had overheated and stuck on.  Once it cooled we were able to go on, just had to be careful.  We plan to get a part replaced while we are renting a jeep later this week.  After getting supplies we went back to the cabin.  While I was starting supper Mike spotted a mountain goat on Twin Peaks.  We watched it on and off all evening.  We're going to turn in fairly early.  Last night's and today's activities made us tired.

Tuesday - August 8, 2000

We got up around 6:30 this morning.  We didn't have another bear visit, but people in a cabin across the road saw a bear that got into their ice chest.  We can't have hummingbird feeders out at night because it attracts the bear.  We left the cabin around 8:30 heading for the Harvard Lakes trailhead.  We hiked to the lakes and got there around 11:30.

Posing at the start of the trail

Eric and Mike on the way up the trail

View as we hiked to Harvard Lakes

We ate our sandwich lunches then Mike and Eric started fishing.  Mike caught four large cutthroat and Eric caught two cutthroat and one brown trout.  The chipmunks and squirrels were active today.  I was sitting very still and a couple of chipmunks at different times came to within about a foot of me.

One of the chipmunks I saw

Mike catching a fish

And catching another

Mike fishing another spot

Eric fishing

View from the upper Harvard Lakes

View of Upper Harvard Lake

 We left the lakes between 3:30 and 4:00 and got back to our car around 4:30.  When we left the lakes there were six other people fishing and we met four on the trail going to the lakes to camp.  The road down from the trailhead is steep and extremely rough.  Mike put the car in low gear but still had to brake quite a bit to keep from having to go over bumps too hard.  The brake we had problems with yesterday stayed completely cool so we decided not to have any work done on it .  We'll just be sure to put the car in a lower gear when we head down mountains on the way to Colorado Springs Sunday.    We saw several pronghorn west of Buena Vista on our way back to the cabin.

Pronghorn

More pronghorn

We cooked T-bone steaks and corn on the cob for supper.  While Mike was cooking steaks he caught the grease in the pan on fire.  It shot to the ceiling.  That gave us our excitement for the evening.  When he moved the pan off the fire the grease fire stopped.  We were all in bed by 9:30, pretty tired after the hike up Mt. Columbia.

Wednesday - August 9, 2000

I got up at 6:30 am, made coffee, then walked down to the creek while the coffee was dripping.  It's after 7:00 now and I'm sitting on the front porch enjoying the cool, sunny morning.  The guys are still in bed.  We pick up the rented jeep at Crazy Horse at 9:00.  We're renting the jeep for 3 days.  We plan to drive to Hancock Lakes today and if we have time on up to Lake Ann on a 4WD road past Winfield and Vicksburg.

Lake Creek

Second view of Lake Creek

The guys got up between 7:30 and 8:00.  We had breakfast, then got our jeep around 9:30.  We went to Hancock Lakes first.  As soon as we got there we ate lunch.  It was mostly sunny with a few clouds. We decided to hike the trail past the lakes to Chalk Creek Pass.  When we got to the parking area three people from Oregon showed up who were hiking to the top of the pass also.  When we got to the upper lake they were having lunch and we asked if one of them would take our picture.  After that we hike past them.  Just as we headed up the mountain Eric spotted seven mountain goats on top of the ridge of Monumental Peak.  They were close enough that we could see them without the binoculars once we knew where they were.  We watched them on and off as we walked up to the pass.

Mary, Eric, Mike

Mary, Eric, Mike

Mountain goats at top of peak

Marmot in trail

Indian paintbrush

Once we got to the pass Eric discovered a patch of snow that he and Mike had to go stand in.  After a short rest we walked (climbed) a short way up the ridge on Monumental Peak.  Mike and Eric went further than I did.  We saw several mountains and two small lakes to the south of the pass.

Mary with folks from Oregon

Eric and Mike in the snow

View of mountains from Chalk Creek Pass

Eric and Mike on peak

Lakes on other side of pass

Hancock Lake

View from Chalk Creek Pass

After hiking down the pass we left Hancock Lakes and decided to go over Tincup Pass again.  The road was rough but Mike didn't have to use 4WD because it wasn't wet like last year.  When we got to the pass we all hiked up the trail to the west of the pass on Fitzpatrick Mountain.  Eric hiked almost to the upper most peak.  Mike spotted three mule deer in the valley to the southeast of the pass.  We didn't see any elk.

Mike and Eric

Mike and Mary

View from Tincup Pass

Mike looking at view

Eric at top of mountain

Mike and view from Tincup Pass

 After leaving the pass, we stopped at Mirror Lake for about 10 minutes so Eric could fish.  He had a few strikes but didn't catch any.  As we headed up the road to Cottonwood Pass on the way back to Buena Vista, we saw about 15 mule deer. Three were close to the road and were nice bucks.  When we got into town we stopped at the store and bought chicken to eat when we got back to the cabin.  We were all really tired when we got back to Mt. Elbert Lodge at 9:30.  We didn't get into bed until about 11:00 so we plan on a late start tomorrow.

Thursday - August 10, 2000

I got up around 7:00 this morning, made coffee, took a shower, then sat on the front porch while Mike and Eric slept in.  Everyone was up by 9:00 and by 10:00 we'd done the dishes, eaten breakfast, and were ready to leave for the day.  After filling the jeep up in Buena Vista we headed up toward Cottonwood Pass to find the 4WD road to Ptarmagin Lake. However, there was only a trailhead to the lake, so we went to some beaver ponds down the road where Eric fished a little with no luck.  We ate lunch then drove past Cottonwood Lake to the Mineral Basin area.  We were told there is a 4WD road to Ptarmagin Lake close to the basin.  We think it is CR349 but we never found out for sure.  We got to Mineral Basin between 1:30 and 2:00.  It began to lightning close by so we didn't stay long.  There really wasn't mucho do up there even though it was very pretty.

Mineral Basin

We drove back toward Cottonwood Lake and Eric fished in a couple of places in the creek without having luck.  It rained lightly on and off for 30 Minutes.  The guys fished on Cottonwood Creek where they caught fish Monday, but they didn't have any luck.  We did see some wild life today, two mule deer at Mineral Basin and two off hwy. 82 on our way back to the cabin.  We left to go back to Buena Vista between 6:30 and 7:00.  We stopped at the store to get stuff for supper then went back to the cabin.  After supper we lay around reading until bedtime.

Friday - August 11, 2000

Once again, I got up early, made coffee, and watched the birds while the guys slept in.  We were all up and ready to go for the day by 10:00.  We drove up the 4WD road that will be the first 1.8 miles of our 11 mile hike up Mt. Elbert tomorrow.  That part of the hike will be easy.

View of Twin Lakes, Quail Mtn., and Twin Peaks from Mt. Elbert trail

After that we drove north toward Leadville on Hwy. 24.  Before getting to Leadville we turned west on CR300 to drive out the Half-moon Creek 4WD road.  It is 10 miles to the end of this road.  We went past two forest service campgrounds and Emerald Lake. You can't see this lake from the road only the parking lot.  The north Mt. Elbert trailhead and south Mt. Massive trailhead are on this road. The road follows Half-moon Creek all the way up the mountain.  About halfway up we stopped and Eric fished.  He caught four brook trout and hooked a fifth one, but his line broke.

Elevation change on Half-moon 4WD road

Half-moon 4WD road

View from the road

Eric and Mary

Mike fishing Half-moon Creek

Halfmoon Creek

Half-moon Creek and the jeep we rented

Eric fishing

View from the road

After that we continued up to the end of the 4 WD road where it ended at a gate.  Past the gate was an old mine, mill, and two old houses on posted private property.  This was on Mt. Champion.  This was a really pretty alpine valley with Half-moon Creek running through it.  Before we left to go back down the mountain it started to thunder and started raining before we got to the bottom of the road.

Mt. Champion from end of road

Cabin by the old mine

Mt. Champion

The old mine

Another old cabin

Mountain View with view of gate to private property

Another Mountain View

The road was pretty rough in some places, but wasn't scary.  After getting off this road we went to Leadville to buy groceries and fill up the jeep.  It was raining pretty hard in some places.  Mike took me back to the cabin then he and Eric went to turn the jeep back in around 6:00 pm.  After getting the car they fished in the Arkansas River north of Hwy 24, but they didn't catch any fish.  However, on the way back to the cabin they saw two mule deer and two cow elk on the west end of Twin Lakes.  After supper, we all read a while then went to bed.

Saturday - August 12, 2000

We got up at 5:00 am so we could be at the trailhead for Mt. Elbert at 6:00 to hike to the summit.  We hiked 1.8 miles from the parking lot up a 4WD road to the beginning of the trail.  We wished we had done this on a day when we had the jeep so we could have eliminated 3.6 miles of hiking. At the beginning we were on the Colorado Trail for about 20 yards then went to the left (west) onto the Mt. Elbert trail.

East Ridge Trail to Mount Elbert

Mike and Eric signing in

First section of the trail

As we hiked through aspen, pine, and fir trees the trail went up steeply.  I had to stop often to catch my breath.  I was having a hard time timing my breathing, I guess due to the steepness of the climb and high elevation.  Eric broke off a stick for me to use as a walking stick and that helped a lot.  The trail was extremely steep until we got to the timberline around 12,000 feet.  At this point we hiked until we reached the east ridge where the trail became slightly steep again.

View to the south from the trail

View of Mt. Elbert 

View of Mt. Elbert summit

Along this part of the trail the flies bothered us a lot.  We rested for about 5 minutes to eat lunch, but didn't rest long due to the flies.  Then we followed the trail up the east ridge.  At this point the wind picked up which made it cooler, but did get rid of the flies.  It also began to cloud up to the east and looked like this system would move far enough west to rain on us.  I was going so slowly we were afraid we wouldn't make it to summit before the weather got bad, so we told Eric to go ahead of us.  There were so many people hiking the trail that it was okay for him to go alone.

View of Twin Lakes and Lake Forebay 

Mary on the section with lots of flies

View to the south

View to the east

Mike, Eric, Mary where we ate lunch

Eric did catch up with some young people from Boulder, Colorado that we had visited with while we ate lunch.  Their names were Mark, Dave, Mike, and Danielle.  Eric hiked with them to the summit.  At this point Mike and I really didn't think we would make it to the top, but decided to continue until we couldn't go any further.

Mt. Elbert

View of mountain on the trail

Lots of people on the trail

The trail became steeper again when we came to the rocky section that faced south east.  This section began around 13,700 feet.  I was holding Mike up at this point because I could only go a short distance before I had to rest.  Eric made it to the summit by 11:30.  He stayed up there for about 30 minutes.  He had been watching us slowly head up, but didn't think we were coming to the top so he started back down.  However, we were so close to the top by then we decided we were going to make it.  I told Mike to go on ahead without waiting for me, in case it started storming and we had to come down.  I left my pack with Eric and it was a lot easier to make it on the short distance to the summit.  Mike and I were both on top by 12:15.

View of the last section of trail

Rocky section of the trail

Two of the people Eric hiked with

Eric at the summit

Made it to the summit - 14,400 ft., the tallest mountain in Colorado. The views, especially to the northwest, west, and southwest, were spectacular.  We only stayed on top about 2 minutes because it looked like bad weather was coming from the west.

View to the west

View to the southwest

View showing where we hiked from at the lakes

Lots of people on the summit

Another view of the trail

Mike and Mary on the summit

We put our ponchos on because it started sleeting a little.  We walked down the mountain to the timberline as fast as we could.  We heard thunder a couple of times so we didn't want to stop until we got to a place with some protection.  Above the timberline the vegetation changed constantly.  The flowers growing on the rocky slopes were very unique and pretty.

Some Indian paintbrush by the trail

Another type of plant on the trail

We got back to the car by 3:30, extremely tired, and sore.  It rained on us at the very end of our hike.  It started raining hard after we got to the car and rained the rest of the night.  We were glad the rain held off as long as it did.  It was extremely cold on top of Mt. Elbert even without any rain.  We got gas at Twin Lakes then headed back to the cabin.  Eric developed a bad headache.  After talking to some people, Mike decided Eric had become dehydrated and had a mild case of altitude sickness.  He had eaten a little bit of pork for supper then got sick at his stomach.  We had been told if he could take a sip of water every 10 minutes without getting sick that would make him better and that worked.  At 8:30 I made him some potato soup and he was able to eat 2 bowls of it and drank more water.  Because of the rain Mike couldn't pack the car, but everything was ready to go in the morning early.

Sunday - August 13, 2000

We got up at 5:00 am and were packed and on the road before 6:00.  The sun was beginning to come up by then.  The clouds were low on the mountains and the sunrise had a pinkish glow.  Mike drove the first leg of the trip in case the right front brake acted up.  The only really long, steep section was east of Woodland Park through the Manitou Springs area and we had no problem.  We ate breakfast at McDonald's  in Woodland Park.  Between Johnson City and Colorado Springs we saw a lot of pronghorn.  We saw two mule deer on Hwy. 24 before getting to Buena Vista.  By the time we got to Limon, Colorado we had seen a total of 50 pronghorn.  I started driving at a rest stop outside of Colby, Kansas.  About two miles east of Russell, Kansas the car cut out on me next to an exit for a rest stop.  I took the exit and the car died before we got into a parking spot.  I had to coast to park.  After looking the car over, Mike decided that it was vapor-locked.  He added oil, then the car started and we took off.  Not far down the road, the car died again so we sat by the side of the road until it would run again (about 5 minutes).  We took off toward Salina again, but didn't run the air conditioner.  We had about 60 miles to Salina, Kansas.  When we were about 20 miles west of Salina, the car died again.  We sat for 15 - 20 minutes until it would run again.  A woman from California stopped to see if we needed help or water to drink.  We were fine because we had filled up all water bottles before we left the cabin.  We finally made it to Salina to a gas station, Blimpies combination.  We ate supper, filled up with gas, and cooled off.  We were told that the temperature was 108 degrees.  This was at 5:00 pm.  Mike had driven from the rest stop where the car died to Salina.  I took over driving again and drove to Sand Springs, Oklahoma.  We were able to use the air conditioner after going through Wichita and didn't have any more trouble with the car.  We stopped at Sand Springs, Oklahoma to get gas and had Eric start driving.  We finally got home at 1:00 am, tired but happy to be in Prairie Grove.  This was one of our best trips to Colorado.  We did something fun every day, and it only rained when we were finished with our activities for the day twice.  Even the car troubles didn't keep us from having a good time.  I believe we will all be ready to head back to school or work.