Blue Lakes Trail

Monday, June 28, 2021

This might have been the best hike we did during our week at Ouray. We got to hike with Ed / Suz / Rayden, and we saw some spectacular scenery. We had great weather too!

You have to drive about 6 miles on a bumpy dirt road to get the start; which is tedious, but the road wasn't so bad that our rental car was in any danger of getting damaged. We went early because this is such a popular hike. We wanted to be sure to get parking at the trailhead. We started hiking before 8 AM. Rayden decided to hike along with Melanie and I, though I warned him not to try to keep up with Melanie. He did keep pace with her for the first mile or so, which also perhaps the steepest part of the trail to Lower Blue Lake. The trail gains about 1200' in the first mile and a half.

We spent about an hour at Lower Blue Lake, just admiring the scenery and nice weather. It was a terrific day.

Ed and Suz hadn't showed up yet, but we decided to continue our hike on up to Upper Blue Lake. Rayden said the altitude was getting to him, so he decided to return to the trailhead while Melanie and I climbed up above Lower Blue Lake. There are some spectacular views from above Lower Blue Lake. A short distance after that, we saw Middle Lower Blue Lake, and then soon reached Upper Blue Lake. We spent about twenty minutes here, eating a bit of lunch and admiring the cirque.

On the hike back down, we caught up with Ed and Suz, so we all walked together back to the start. That evening, Melanie and I got an order of fish and chips from the Goldbelt restaurant. It was a nice ending to a perfect day.