My long awaited trip to James Peak took place today. This was my third
attempt as snow always seemed to be blocking my path. We left my house about
6:00 am and arrive at James Peak about 8:00 am. We hiked up to James Peak
Lake first, and then back tracked to take the trail up to Little Echo Lake.
What a beautiful place to visit.
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James Peak looking up from Mammoth Creek
Basin, 7:30 a.m. and what a beautiful view! |
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A zoomed view. |
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Arapahoe Peak. |
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Derek unloading his gear from my car.
Kingston Peak can be seen at the upper right. |
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Arapahoe National Forest sign laying
on the ground, and no I didn't knock it down. |
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Looking back towards my car as we hiked
in, the city of Denver can be seen in the distant haze. |
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Our goal was to get to this lake called
"Little Echo Lake." |
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We hiked across several of these patches
of snow. |
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View of James Peak looking slightly
northwest. |
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Looking northwest towards James Peak. |
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James Peak again. |
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The ponds below James Peak Lake. These
were the two largest ponds, there was so much water everywhere,
that pools of water were all around us. |
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Small waterfall, below James Peak Lake. |
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Looking back east, we could see the
grueling hike back to the car. |
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Just above those trees and over the
hill was "Little Echo Lake," but we were heading for "James Peak
Lake" first. |
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Looking southeast, Derek standing on
the trail to James Peak Lake. Somebody worked hard to put this trial
in. |
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I told Derek to keep his eyes open for
artifacts laying on the trail, and suddenly in the middle of the
trail, was this abandoned sled or toboggan. It looked to be 70 to
100 years old. It probably weighed 300 pounds. I wonder what stories
it had and why was it left here? |
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Looking south from the base of James
Peak. |
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Looking southeast. |
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More pools of water. |
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A cabin on the edge of James Peak Lake.
I hope to find out the story for this place. |
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James Peak Lake looking west. |
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Another view of James Peak Lake looking
northwest. |
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Top of the cabin looking east. |
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Looking west, James Peak towering above,
the corner of the cabin and a very large pipe dated 1890. |
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We had to go back about a 1/4 of a mile
to get to Little Echo Lake. Here's a foot bridge that we had to
cross. |
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Looking southwest you can just see the
corner of James Peak. Look closely at the center of this photo,
some unlucky person's vehicle rolled down the mountain and ended
up here. |
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Heading on up to Little Echo Lake, you
can see the northern spur of James Peak. |
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James Peak again. |
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My first view of Little Echo Lake looking
north. |
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The edge of Little Echo Lake looking
east. This is where I thought Charles Weitfle took his "Lake Luena"
photo, I was so sure that it was here. I was told that a small rock
formation here collapsed not too many years ago, but this angle
just doesn't look right. After looking at all my photos, and walking
around the lake, I still believe this is the same lake. I think
that the rock formation was at the edge of the rock slide going
into the lake, and that the Weitfle rock was still partially buried
in the snow in the view below. If true, Weitfle would have been
taking a photo staring back at the Collier view. Also, Weitfle has
canoes in his photo, that would be the only way to get to that side
of the lake. |
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Looking southwest at Little Echo Lake. |
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Another southwest view. |
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ditto... |
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I'm on the north shore now, here's the
rock slide looking southwest. |
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ditto.. |
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Looking straight south from the north
shore. |
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Looking southeast, if you look carefully
you can see 4x4s parked at the edge of our trail out. |
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A southwest zoomed view. |
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I had to stand where Joseph Collier
stood for this photograph. He must of had a wide angle lens on his
camera, because you can see the tops of the mountains in his view,
this was the best I could do. |
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Looking east from where Collier stood. |
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Looking southeast. |
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Another eastern view. |
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This is where Collier stood. |
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Derek showing me his fish he caught
while I was taking photos. Of course I caught a bigger one later. |
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Derek's fish. Don't worry, we're catch
and release people, so no harm was done to this little guy. Unless
someone else caught him, he's still swimming in the lake today. |
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Looking southeast through the trees
as we were heading back to the car. |
