Hike in the Indian Peaks Park

Entering Indian Peaks Wilderness

 On our first weekend we set off in our (slightly battered) car-share car, up into the Rockies.  In less than an hour and a half we gained 5,000 feet, driving through rocky and impressive Boulder canyon.  A friendly, deputy dawg-style ranger welcomed us into Indian Peaks Park and wanted to discuss Tom Daley’s performance in the Olympics.  The walk to Lake Isabelle was stunning and mercifully flat, as we were in no way adjusted to the altitude (Dan had a very bad head ache by the end of the day).  The last bit of the walk was steeper and it was sooo  beautiful and absorbing: glaciers and a ring of mountains of 13,000 feet (4,000m) with names such as Navajo, Apache and Shoshoni.

Coming up to Lake Isabelle

At Lake Isabelle with the Peaks behind

Lots of chat about mountain lions and bears, and we developed a drill: when an adult says “Bear!”, the children stand between and scope stones to throw if the bear advances,  The adults put their backpacks above their heads and command the bear to go away.  At one point I thought I saw a snake, and jumped a little, but it was just a dappled, swirley mushroom.