Lake Isabelle

It's a bit early in the season for hiking at high altitude but I was hankering to hit the high country and with predictions of high 80's for Boulder I thought a trip to the Indian Peaks Wilderness area would be a great escape from the heat in town. I wanted to take all 3 dogs, or rather I felt bad at the idea of leaving someone behind, but Jonny wasn't having it so we only took Strummer. When we got there and I realized the trail conditions were 90% packed snow I was wishing we'd left him home as well. It would have been fine if we could have taken him off leash but dogs must be leashed in Wilderness Areas. This wouldn't have been a problem except that Strummer's method of getting to the bottom of a 4' tall snow drift is to take a flying leap off the top which is super fun when he's attached to your waist and you have a gimpy knee. I didn't think to bring my Yax Trax so the going was a bit slippy slidey and what is normally an easy peasy 2 hour or so hike turned into 3 hours and 40 minutes minus the 15-20 minutes we spent at Lake Isabelle once we finally got there. It was a beautiful day though and so far my knee seems to be holding up after the effort. I was a little worried with the unstable footing but so far so good. At one point Jonny decided to take a shortcut up a nearly vertical slope and I was practically crawling on hands and knees and unsure if I would make it either to the top or back down but somehow I did. I'm hoping I didn't overdo it.

The creek was running full tilt.


It's maybe hard to tell from the photo but that hole in the snow just above the trees is a roaring waterfall. We hiked over the top of it to get to the lake but there was no way to get a closer view of it.


Cool little snow bridge


At least somebody was happy to be hiking in the snow.


Worth the 2 hour slog through the snow, view of Lake Isabelle.


Meditating at 10,875 feet.


Most people come home from 3 hour 40 minute hikes in the snow at 10,000 feet with a trashed dog that leaves them in peace for the rest of the day. I hate those people. Little bastard didn't even nap in the car on the way home.