June 13
August 22
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
The summer smoke and heat seems to have abated for now, so we decided to resume our mountain hikes. Since we hadn’t been out in a while, we opted for a shorter than normal hike, just 3.6 miles round trip.
So, we left home at 8 am, arriving at the Wild Basin Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park a little after 9:30. The parking lot there was fairly full, but, according to the woman who was helping people find an open parking spot, a lot emptier than just the week before. During the summer, this lot fills up very early in the day. However, many of the schools in the state (and around the country) have started back up, so traffic was a bit lighter.
It was a wonderful day for hiking, especially on a trail that follows a cascading creek up into the mountains. I don’t think the temperature climbed above 70 the entire time we were on the trail and there was a bright cloud cover most of the day, which really helps with waterfall and cascade photography.
Just 0.3 miles from the trailhead, we found the first named waterfall - Lower Copeland Falls (photo to the left). We’ve stopped here before, but that didn’t stop me from taking a few pictures.
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A short trek up the trail and we arrived at Upper Copeland Falls. There were more sticks in the water than the last time we were here, but it’s still a pretty area.
The three photos above were taken at Upper Copeland Falls. The ones to the left and center show details of this nice waterfall while the photo on the right shows the long view.
From here, the trail continues 1.5 miles along the banks of North St. Vrain Creek. It was a fairly steady uphill pull, but not too strenuous. The total elevation change was only about 700 feet total, most of it in this 1.5 mile stretch.
We stopped several times to admire the cascading creek (and take some photos, above).
About a mile from the Copeland Falls, we encountered a bridge crossing the creek with some really nice cascades. Of course, everyone had to stop and take pictures (including me - photos to the left and right). The trail was fairly busy today, yet didn’t seem crowded. It was a friendly group.
Shortly after this bridge, we arrived at Calypso Cascades (left), our destination for today. The photo on the left above shows most of this hillside of cascades. The center photo shows a section of a fallen tree that I liked. The photo on the right shows some foam swirling in an eddy within Calypso Cascades. After taking a few photos, we sat on a large log and ate our lunch before heading back to the trailhead.
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We kept encountering these two fishermen along the creek. I wonder if they caught anything other than logs....
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As we were walking long the lower portion of the trail, we noticed several people shooting up into the trees. It took a while to see what they were looking at - an aspen that appeared to have formed a large “O” several feet above the ground. Looking more carefully, it looks like a tree fell onto the top of the aspen as it was growing and got stuck. The aspen split its main trunk, growing up around either side of this other tree’s trunk before the branches returned to almost meet above the dead trunk. The two halves then continued straight up! From ground level, this looks like the tree formed a perfect “O”. The dead tree then rotted away, leaving this phenomenon visible to those of us on the ground. The photos to the left and right show two different views of this "O".
This chipmunk (or ground squirrel, not sure which) had obviously been fed by humans at some point in time. It kept posing and begging from everyone that passed by - see photo to the left. Remember not to feed the wildlife - no matter how cute they are!!! (Thus ends this public service announcement...)
We did see some wildflowers along the trail, but they weren’t very prolific or all that pretty - just a little too late for much there. And there was some early autumn color, but it’s really still too early for much of that, even in the high country. This was a day for water!
We arrived back at the parking area a little before 2. At that point, the clouds decided that they would do more than cover the sky. It wasn’t much of a shower - just a light sprinkle that almost settled the dust on the dirt road. We were back home about 3:30 and headed for the hot tub....
All in all, a very nice day.