• Elk Park Trail
The U.S. Forest Service has opened most trailheads for the summer season. However, there is still considerable snow around and above most of our alpine lakes, especially on north facing slopes above 10,000 feet in elevation.
As points of reference, Gilpin Lake is at 10,338 feet, Mica Lake 10,428 feet, Three Island Lake 9,878 feet and Bighorn Lake 10,106.
If you plan to hike the Zirkel Circle or other alpine areas in June, be prepared to hike through snow, and know that you will need to cross streams with cold, fast moving water.
Friends of Wilderness sawyers and other crews are working hard to clear trails of fallen trees, but it will be weeks before they might get to the trail you plan to hike. Be prepared to climb over trees and through tree branches.
Sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, but it s been a
moist one in the Denver Metro area so far this year. You may have also noticed it s been really green, and that s because as of June 1, the National Weather Service has reported nearly 11 inches of precipitation, and we re only half way through the year.
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2021 is now the ninth-wettest year in Colorado s documented history, and that s the most wet it s been since 1983. So far this year, the area has gotten 10.49 inches of precipitation. 38 years ago, there was 10.5 inches by June 1, and 20.19 inches by the end of the year. That s 139 percent above the normal amount for this region.
It’s a calm, early August day when I drive up the rutted dirt road that leads to C Lazy U Ranch. The 102-year-old luxury guest ranch is the last stop on a 10-day road trip around western Colorado. My husband and I slow to a stop in front of the reddish-brown barn. Some of the ranch’s 200 horses are nibbling bites of hay and grass from rows of troughs. Guests amble by, their cowboy boots kicking up tiny swirls of dust. The sky is perfectly clear,.
This year’s Memorial Day ceremony in Grand Lake had an even more somber tone than usual as the town gathered for one of its first events since the East Troublesome Fire.