July 5, 2014 Big Creek Lake, Colorado

We headed west of Walden toward the Mt Zirkel Wilderness area.

View out the windshield of the Mt Zirkel Wilderness area. On this map we are going to the red arrow, Big Creek Lake. Notice at the top of the map how close we are to Wyoming.

Big Creek Lake. We got lost going to the trail head and went through this very lush area with wild iris and aspen.

Of course it started to rain, so we whipped out our cagoules. Mine was too small to put over my pack, so John gave me his old one. Now we match. John once said if we ever start dressing to match, to shoot him. We are almost at that point! John on the boardwalk through the wet area. The whole place was a wet area and there were millions of mosquitoes. Good reason to keep the cagoules on, to protect us from the mosquitoes .

We hiked to Big Creek Falls. They are very lovely. The spray from the falls kept the mosquitoes  away. We ate our lunches while walking, if you stopped you were swarmed. John had a PBJ &M sandwich. PBJ and mosquitoes.

You can really see how much the pine beetle wiped out the lodgepole pines here. John above the lake. At least with the dead lodgepoles there were more views.

Small creeks of snowmelt crossed the trail the whole way. This is the lush green valley on the way back. This whole area is ranches. They say the early miners said this valley was so lush that the grass was as tall as an antelopes back, and that brought the ranchers.

There are moose in this area. We saw one in the willows. The willows are so tall and thick there could be hundreds in there and you’d never see them. The moose’s predators are wolves or grizzly bears. There are no wolves or grizzly  bears in Colorado so the only predator is man, mistaking them for elk when hunting. Pretty sad. These girls told me that they loved horses. They were cute and the horses were beautiful.

John has his own lake in this area. You can tell we are in the wild west, the road  sign is all shot up.

Walden is in the valley in the distance. It has mountain ranges on both sides. The valley is this lush grass, no wonder it is all ranches here.

Wild iris, stickweed, mouse eared chick weed, lady tresses orchid, with bee, bistort, some kind of pea flower, queen anne’s lace, thimbleberry flower.

elder berry, not sure, dusky penstamen, false solomons seal, wild onion, pasque flower seeds, never seen this before and pasque flower.

flower buds, saxifrage, pearly everlastings, red buds, twisted stalk, aster, scarlet gila, and false solomon’s seal.

Lady tresses orchid, red buds, lupine and scarlet gila.