Mills Lake in late fall looks a lot different than it did in August. Today I went back to one of my favorite parts of Rocky Mountain National Park, hiking to Mills Lake and to the little Jewel Lake just beyond it.
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Still searching for gold, I went out to the edge of the Great Plains and found it today. I figured that some of the ponds about 10 miles east of Boulder would be the best place to look for trees that were turning.

Here are some shots I took the first thing this morning around the beautiful and beautifully named Walden Ponds.
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Hunting for the golden leaves of autumn, I made two short and sweet hikes today. It had been about a year since I had been to Heil Valley Ranch, a part of Boulder County’s North Foothills Open Space about 10 miles north of town. I remembered a nice little circuit hike among the trees.

The trees, however, were all evergreen. Not a bit of gold in sight. While the weather was cold and windy, I had dressed for it and stayed warm. Even better, we have the strong sun of autumn over the land today.

So I was far from ready to return to my desk. I took another hike. This one was to Boulder Falls, about 10 miles east of town up Boulder Canyon.
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When I got to the Bobolink trailhead this morning, the fog lay low over the land. It surprised me because it was sunny over my apartment, and the trail was on the plains only two miles away.

The fog changed everything. It was cold enough that I appreciated my new insulated boots and my gloves. The scenery was so constricted that I realized I wouldn’t get any dramatic photographs this morning.
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After two days of rain in Boulder and snow in the mountains, the sun came out and began to warm the landscape today. I was ready for my first rather long hike in a week.

I didn’t go far from home but it took me three hours on the trail. My destination was Marshall Mesa, just south of town, a big part of the open space that completely surrounds Boulder. The loop trail around Marshall Mesa used to be one of my favorite foothill hikes, but last year they closed the trailhead that was along a road that I often take.

I wondered why and was about to complain, when on Saturday I noticed a new and much better trailhead. Gratification so long deferred, that’s the main reason why I hiked there today. But I also wanted to stay in the foothills because the trees are changing color here, having already completed the cycle higher in the mountains.
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I can’t keep away from the mountains! Even when my knee aches! Today I went back up to Rocky Mountain National Park, but not for the hiking. I went to see the seasonal elk rut.

It was easy to find the elk. I saw hundreds of them in small groups and large herds. I even saw a group in Lake Estes, which is part of the town of Estes Park.

For the first time in my life I heard the famous elk bugling. During the mating season the big old males often express their passion with this characteristic mating call. I knew that the best places to see and hear them were three areas that I had often visited, Moraine Park, Horseshoe Park, and Upper Beaver Meadows.
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A flu shot got me moving toward the mountains today.

Since I was half-way there when I went to my usual pharmacy, I continued on after the shot and some shopping to the National Center for Atmospheric Research. While I once enjoyed taking a free guided tour through the facility, I generally think of it more as an architectural marvel and a nice place for taking a walk on a nature trail.

“NCAR’s flagship Mesa Laboratory is located in the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado, in a dramatic complex of buildings designed by architect I. M. Pei on grounds laid out by Dan Kiley, says Wikipedia of its architecture. “The site is maintained as a nature preserve.”
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Yesterday I got my exercise closer to home.

I wanted to break in my new boots on a short walk that wouldn’t be too painful if blisters developed. I remembered all too well a hike years ago with boots in the Dolly Sods Wilderness of West Virginia. The blisters were so painful that I meditated on them for hours, putting my consciousness there so that I could step as gingerly as possible and not do further damage. But these new boots performed superbly yesterday for the 1 1/2 hours I was on the trail.

I stayed so close to home that I didn’t even have to take Suzy. I walked over to the undeveloped and adjacent University of Colorado south property. In addition to breaking in my boots, I needed to break in my healing knee, walking out the pain remaining in it, especially when walking down hill. But my walk yesterday was almost entirely flat.
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Green Mountain was never my goal yesterday. But it was there, and I couldn’t resist.

My goal was a short hike in the foothills. I knew the high mountains would be too cold with a prediction of 18 degrees and snow in Rocky Mountain National Park. And until today I didn’t have any light crampons for hiking on ice, like I experienced a week ago on the trail to Lake Isabelle.

Since I had no idea where to go, I poured over my maps. Then, I saw a trail not far from here that I had never noticed before, the Long Canyon Trail. It looked interesting, but then I noticed that it was only 1.5 miles each way.

I wanted something a bit more challenging. Then, I saw that I could make a circuit hike by going up the Ranger Trail, over on Green Mountain West Ridge Trail, down 0.4 mile on the road, and back on Long Canyon Trail.
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Maybe I’m crazy. I know I’m different. Today I went where no one else was willing to go.

Before sunrise I drove to the top of my world, which means Rocky Mountain National Park. The scenic Trail Ridge Road, which had been closed on Wednesday, is open again.

For one last time this year I went to the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet and walked the short trail to the top of a peak at 12,005 feet at sunrise. I was completely alone. Nobody else wanted to do that. No other vehicles were at the huge parking lot, which in summer was always so full that I would have to wait for a parking place to open up. No one was on the trail.
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