Highlight Hiker Blog
September 5, 2021
Colorado
Indian Peaks Wilderness
ARRIVAL DAY
I flew in to Denver, and then drove to Boulder where my sister lives. We had been talking about this trip for months and it felt odd being there. My head was a bit dizzy from anticipation, sleeplessness and, most likely, altitude. I had everything that I needed for a long weekend packed in my ULA pack, I had mailed my bear canister with food in advance (it never arrived) and I was grinning from ear to ear.
I had read about the Indian Peaks Wilderness and couldn’t wait to see the places that I’d only read about in books or online. The weather was predicted to be glorious for the entire 4 days of our trip and I wanted to get further up into the elevation.
Indian Peaks Wilderness is an area most people claim never to have heard of, but it is a significant park of 73,391 acres, with over 50 lakes, and 28 hiking trails. It is a popular park with 6 passes over the Continental Divide. 6 of the 8 major peaks are over 13,000’. Backpacking requires a $5 permit from June 1 - September 15, with some trails requiring additional fees. Certain sections of the park prohibit camping, while other prohibit campfires. Be sure to check out the US Forest Service page for further information. You can go to their page directly from the “Explore It” button below.
Our base of operations was in the Brainard Lake Campground. We had talked about backpacking up and over Pawnee Pass, but this was going to be my first time at elevations over 10,000’ and I wasn’t going to have the time to properly acclimatize so we decided to try lower elevation hikes before making that call. Permits were still available, if we changed our mind, though I’m glad we decided not to in retrospect.
Our problem, however, with the campground were the wind storms. HOLY MOLY. We were up all night on most nights due to the aggressive wind storms that blew through. And our campsite particularly... there had been a disease that took out most of the trees which provide necessary shelter. I repeatedly had to get out of my tent and find more rocks to keep it from blowing down. We were very tired each morning and eventually moved to a different site with more shelter.
The nights were chilly, but the days were spectacular and we spent every hour of them hiking… once we got started. We were so exhausted every morning that I think we slept in later than we intended to. We probably would have gotten better sleep had we been backpacking but for a few nights, this was acceptable. At least, once we figured out that we could switch the a better site.
We arrived on our first day in the late afternoon (I had to go to REI to get food since none of mine arrived which delayed our start) and set up camp, eyes glistening with excitement and wondering what the next few days would hold for us.
Colorado
Indian Peaks Wilderness, Brainard Lake
And as we were driving in, who did we see?
A moose!
A big moose and a smaller moose (who was also a very big moose)
On our drive from Boulder to Brainard Lake I had told my sister that all I wanted to see was a moose. I didn't need a grizzly encounter, or caribou... I just wanted to see moose in the wilderness.
Just grazing on the side of the road!
They didn't care about the people pulling over to ogle at them.
Just having some supper.
Moose butt!!
They are so beautiful. And don't worry: we'll see more!
The Big Agnes Scout 1 Platinum all set up for the evening. It really stood up against the wind, honestly. The gravel wasn't dense enough to hold the stakes in but it still stayed up right in high winds once I got larger rocks on them and I was well protected.
We layered up each night. It was pretty chilly but in my tent I had no complaints. I was toasty in my bag!