Navajo Lake

Jacqueline and Zyla were planning to come for a hike with me, but the night before they decided it might be a little too much for Zyla. So I had to go by myself instead. I had wanted to return to the Navajo Lake area since we went up there a year earlier. It was a beautiful fall day out, so this seemed like the perfect time for the undertaking. I left early in the morning and drove up to the Woods Lake Trailhead. I saw my best fall colors of the day at the trailhead because where I was going hiking was going to be above the aspens. I knew Jacqueline would be missing the colors, but not the cold as it was a chilly 34 degrees out. I had to wear my fleece for most of the morning as I would be hiking uphill through the trees in the shade. There were a lot more switchbacks then I remembered as the trail just kept climbing and climbing. As I was getting to near treeline, there was an old cabin. I refused to take a picture of it because there is nothing like a picture of an old cabin coming up on your computer to say boring, but it was very neat to see when I was there. Popping out above treeline, I finally got one of those great views that make living through the windy cold winter worthwhile. There was a great view of the mountains we could see from our house in Norwood, just on the other side. Dolores, Middle, Dunn, Flattop, and Little Cone still remained free of snow, though we had a little dusting earlier in the week on the peaks. I could see the remnants of it as I continued on the ridge that would take me to Navajo Lake. It had been a quiet day thus far as I think my early morning had kept the trail to myself. Finally I made it to the spot where Jacqueline and I had turned around a year previous because of impending weather moving in. It was probably the best view of the whole hike as I could see the peaks that rose above El Diente and Mt. Wilson, both gnarly looking 14ers. I could also see the valley that held my final destination Navajo Lake. I started my descent to the lake, which was a little different then the constant climb. I did not want to go too far downhill because I knew I would have to come back up. It did not go down for long before I hit the trail junction with the trail that came in from Dolores. Even though that trail is in the 100 Classic Hikes in Colorado, I was still glad I took the one I did because of the views along the way. After the junction, the trail climbed slowly back up until I was at the lake. I went to the far shore where I found a nice rock to sit on and have some lunch. I wanted to keep going as the trail was not done, but we did not have very much food in the house when I left so I would not have had enough calories to keep me going. So I turned around. On the way back, I ran into a few groups who were friendly and all seemed to be enjoying themselves. One was a couple overnighting at the lake, while another was some mid-40s ladies debating whether they could make it to the lake. I tried to encourage them as one was all for it and the other was a little hesitant. All and all it was a good day with a finish just a bit after noon. I would love to come back to that spot someday with Jacqueline and Z to do a little backpacking of our own.