Mt. Neva

What a difference a week makes. Last weekend I was up in the park and it felt like it was still summer. This weekend I was up in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and it has suddenly turned to autumn.

It was quite brisk as I started out at the Fourth of July trailhead. As I headed up the trail it was apparent that it was going to be a windy day. I kept my fleece vest on most of the way up. My goal for the day was to get up into the basin below Mt. Neva and Arapahoe Pass. This is one of my favorite places along the Front Range, as there are no trails that actually go through this area. Bushwhacking is the way!  Trail?…What trail?…I don’t need no stinkin’ trail!

Autumn seems to have come early this year, or maybe it’s just me wishing it was still summer. I can’t complain too much as the autumn coloring is just beautiful. Still just the beginning of the season and hopefully I will be able to catch the peak somewhere in my travels.

I hiked the Arapahoe Pass trail up to the Fourth of July Mine, at which point I dropped down into the valley where I found a nice little pond to explore and get some nice shots of Mt. Neva, S. Arapahoe Peak and the surrounding  area. Surprisingly for a Sunday, I only saw one couple on the way in. Once off the trail and down in the valley, I had the place all to my self! Just the way I like it.

I took my time and made my way around the pond, making sure to get all the angles as I did not want to miss a thing. At one end there were tracks from some large animal that had walked into the pond and looked like it had dug around in the mud on the edge looking for something to eat. I supposed it was either a deer or elk. Kind of like moose behavior, but I have yet to see a moose in Colorado. Although they say they are here. they do a good job of hiding from me.

After an hour or so at the pond, I headed back up to the trail and poked around the area of the Fourth of July Mine. Before too long the persistent wind in this exposed place had me heading back down the trail to the shelter provided by the trees.