On this day we broke camp, then drove back to the park gates (several kms) and headed north towards West Elk Pass and Fox Lake. The trail rejoins the Petain Waterfall trail a few km further west after making a loop of roughly 6 km. Here hubby points out a pine mushroom that is worth about $50 on the mushroom market. Too bad we found it at the beginning of the hike and don’t have all the connections lined up for selling them!
We climbed steeply for the first while but an amazing portion of the hike was along this meadow that comprises West Elk Pass. It was huge!
Fox Lake was our lunch stop at roughly the half-way point of the hike. Up above the lake, cradled in the valley half-way up Fox Mountain is Frozen Lake. Next time we’re going to try the hike up into there.
The view coming down from West Elk Pass was magnificent. The air was a little hazy which made for less clarity in the photos. Still, the haze added an interesting mood element.
Coming down off the mountain towards the end of our hike. I’m not too fond of heights, but this section was the only one all weekend that even hit my radar for a minute. From the bridge at the bottom the trail rejoins the trail from Day One about 2 km from the parking lot.