Colorado Hiking Trip, day 3: Up into the San Juan’s

The spring wildflower bloom in the desert southwest was incredible. Then, the spring wildflower bloom in Oregon was excellent. Colorado also saw historic snowfall last winter. I was keeping an eye on Colorado’s spring/early summer weather patterns. Sure enough, the monsoon rains came early and often. In fact, the monsoon rains began before the winter snowfall had melted off. I knew the wildflowers would be off the charts!

The wildflowers were a full month behind due to the deep snowpack. Some even more than a month behind! This year, 2019, ALL of the wildflowers ended up blooming at once! The June and July wildflowers got a very late start and bloomed with the August wildflowers. I thought it would be really neat to see spring in mid August high up in the San Juan mountains in southwest Colorado.

It’s almost bizarre to be up in the mountains photographing the height of the wildflower bloom, only 3-4 weeks before the normal season begins for fall colors. I’m fascinated to see if this extremely late growing season will lead to the trees turning colors late also.

There were a few new trails I wanted to hike. They’re not actually new trails, just new to me. They’re the Ice Lakes and Island Lakes trails just north of Silverton, Colorado. This day began with a glorious foggy mountain sunrise!

This is a rather strenuous nearly 9 mile round trip hike. The hike begins just beyond Mineral Creek campground, at an elevation of around 9,800 feet. The trail goes straight up from there and starts by crossing alpine meadows, meandering into a pine forest. About a half an hour into the hike, I came out of the forest and began a series of fairly steep switchbacks.

The wildflowers began almost immediately! There were also multiple waterfalls creating a constant roaring sound in this large valley and forest. The waterfalls appear to be flowing off the tops of the ridges, tumbling down to the valleys below, getting their beginnings in hidden alpine lakes high above this trail.

The pine forest begins to thin out around 11,000 feet allowing me to see just how much higher I have to climb! I have to go up and over that grade in the picture above. Many different flowers blanketed both sides of the trail, such as Columbines, Larkspur, and Daisies.

There were a few creeks that I had to cross, still flowing strong with August snowmelt. I had a very steep climb up to a high alpine meadow that allowed a temporary pause in the nonstop climbing. I crested the hill and gazed upon Ice Lake for the first time, at 12,270 feet. My first ever views of Ice Lake left me standing there, speechless. The water was the deepest turquoise color!

Ice Lake sits in a magnificent cirque amid subalpine tundra dotted with wildflowers. Grant Peak (13,767-ft.) rises to the north. Other peaks includes Fuller Peak (13,761-ft.), Vermillion Peak (13,894-ft.), Golden Horn (13,780-ft.) and Pilot Knob (13,738-ft.) forming the wall of the upper lake basin.

I was feeling the full effects of the high altitude and decided to take a break before continuing even higher up into the San Juan mountains.

A faint trail leading away from Ice Lake leads the way up to Island Lake.

I had to cross Ice Lake’s runoff creek before continuing on up to Island Lake. I walked around about 200 feet in each direction of the creek before finding a good place to rock hop across the creek. The climb continues up higher in elevation, but isn’t as steep as the trailhead to Ice Lake. There was a stiff cool breeze up above 12,000 feet. I had to put on a jacket as temperatures were in the lower 50s with a 20 mph wind.

The views of the surrounding mountain ranges and valleys below me were incredible as I continued climbing, closing in on 13,000 feet. The skies were partly cloudy and the clouds looked like they would actually run into the side of the mountain. This reminded me of my Pacific Crest Trail hike north of Wrightwood. The clouds did actually hit the side of the mountain. It was amazing to hike into and through the clouds up on the ridges on the PCT.

Island Lake at 12,492 feet is surrounded by rolling hills to the south and west and abrupt peaks to the north. The trail wound up the gentle hills above the lake, then descended down to the lake. Island Lake is the deepest aquamarine color I’ve ever seen! It was even more amazing than Ice Lake! When the sun shines down over Island Lake, the lake shimmers in a deep aquamarine. In the shade, however, that glimmer disappears and it almost looks like any other normal lake. I paused to eat lunch in a meadow that overlooked Island Lake. It was neat to see the lake change colors as the sun came out from behind the clouds.

The trail continued even higher up to Fuller Lake. The clouds were darkening and there was a chance for storms, so I decided not to chance being stuck above tree line in an electrical storm. I descended back down to the trail head. There were lots of avalanches during this last winter season, scaring the landscape. Entire sections of forest were completely leveled by avalanches. It’s hard to imagine the power of an avalanche and the sound of thousands of trees simultaneously snapping at their bases, along with the roar of millions of tons of snow falling down the mountain.