On the 4th of July I climbed my 70th Colorado peak with the company of my wife (and photographic partner) and one of our dogs. Looking west from Denver there are a few distinct groupings of mountains, all part of the Front Range. Colorado Mines Peak is one of eight named peaks in what I call the James Peak group. This peak marks my third in this group. A forest service road at Berthoud Pass is closed to public vehicles, but makes an easy trail for hikers. Many long switchbacks keep the road from getting very steep.
It was a good day for nice views on the way up.
Beautiful flowers everywhere on this hike.
Unlike most alpine summits in Colorado, this mountain is home to giant communication and FAA towers that certainly looked out of place.
…but there were better things to look at.
The trail up to Mt. Flora, the next peak in the range on my to-do list.
This lake down below was our next objective. I think it's called Blue Lake, which is very generic name.
A smaller, unnamed lake with a more interesting shape.
Getting to the summit was fairly quick and easy, so we had some time to climb down to the lakes, which proved to be much more difficult.
"Blue Lake"
The smaller lake
The greatest pine cone photo ever!
After a pleasant time on the back side of the mountain, we began our climb back up, partially circumnavigating back to the road in order to avoid some of the elevation.
She doesn't look very happy in these photos, but trust me, she had a blast.
The clouds started rolling in shortly before we reconnected with the road.
Very nice. How lucky you are to do such cool things. I am jealous. Oh wait, I was there!
Thanks for the beauty. Great photos, as usual. At least they didn’t call it “Wet Lake.” Ha.
Dude, awesome pictures! I’ve skinned up to that peak in winter, but not quite to the top (wind ususally buffs off the snow at the very top). I have never looked on the east side though, looks beautiful. Will have to explore some time.