Today we hiked to Diamond Lake in the Indian Peaks wilderness. The drive through Nederland and up to the Fourth of July trailhead is beautiful and the hike is even better. (...though the last 5 or so miles of dirt road to get to the trailhead made me glad we didn't drive the Audi.)
By our GPS, the hike was a 4.8 mile out-and-back (that's round trip mileage) that ended around 10,900 feet (it had 1200 feet of elevation gain). Fortunately, the trail's grade was quite gradual and it had a nice mix of sunny and shady areas. This hike offered fantastic scenery from start to finish. There were snowy mountaintops all around, a riot of colorful flowers everywhere you looked, and several happily burbling streams to stop and enjoy.
In fact, there's water all along the hike. For the first part of the hike you're accompanied by the sights and sounds of an amazingly tall waterfall on the opposite side of the valley. Later you find yourself crossing small streams and stopping to admire waterfalls cascading right next to you. That said, at no point did my feet get soaked nor did we have any issues crossing any of the streams we encountered.
We also ran into quite a bit of snow, which was somewhat challenging to traverse, but very pretty. For the last tenth of a mile or so, we walked exclusively on snow. Though it got rather windy and cool at that point, the vistas at the lake were worth it. Diamond Lake is crystal clear and artfully framed by pines and peaks. It was definitely worth the trip.
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