Friday 9-3 Hiking the Archulets Trail

Beautiful Sunny Day

We had beautiful sunny day. It started out in the low 40s and got into the low 70s.

After breakfast Larry put up the solar panels. Then we went on a 6 mile hike on the Archuleta Trail. We started from the Minnie using the lake trail, which is part of the Archuleta Trail. We hiked it 1.5 miles to a sign for the Wilderness part of the trail. The Archuleta trail goes for 7 miles from the campground parking lot one way to the Continental Divide Trail. We saw our friend the Pika in his rocks. The lake was very flat and no one was on it. The trail was a lot more challenging than the old service road because we had to climb over boulders and fallen trees. One fallen tree Larry had to break some of its branches off so I could climb over it. While we hiked we heard the creek flowing along the trail, sometimes we could see it and sometimes not. As the creek flowed down the mountainside it created waterfalls as it twisted and turned down the mountain. We stopped occasionally to watch the creek and look at the scenery. One time when we stopped by the creek we saw some fish. The creek was very clear and the fish were hard to see. We saw rock formations that made small caves. We saw at least three different berries; red, blue and orange. We crossed over small creeks feeding into the larger one via rocks. We climbed about 700 feet in elevation to 9800 feet. We had to stop and rest now and then. We hiked until we got to a place where we could not cross the creek without getting wet, there weren't enough rocks to cross it and it was pretty deep. At that point we turned around and headed back. While standing looking at the creek's waterfall a hummingbird flew around Larry's head, this surprised him because it never happened before, it might of thought he was a wildflower because of the color of his hat. We also saw another one flying around. On the way back we saw a young couple sitting on huge boulders in the creek resting and taking pictures. We waved at them and they waved back. When we got to the cross trail sign we saw another young couple jogging the trail. We said our hellos and I let them go by us. Then we were back on the lake trail. We were about a half mile away from the Minnie when a group of 10 people came by. They had a couple of dogs. We said hi and we were glad we were finishing up our hike and they were just beginning. At the same place there was a couple sitting on the rocks resting. We had a peaceful hike in the mountains.  

The mountain creek that flows by the trail

 

Larry trying to decide if we can cross

After our hike we were exhausted. We read and I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges and Event: Klondike Mini of 5 games. It took me 9 minutes and 9 seconds, which put me in 9th place in my group. 

In the afternoon a small front came through and brought rain for about an hour. When it started to rain Larry went outside and took down the solar panels. 

After dinner he put them back up. The solar panels are doing an outstanding job. We didn't hike around the lake this evening so I walked around the campground for an hour and a half to get my steps in. As I was walking I talked to people. I saw that the campground was full because it's Labor Day weekend. I ended up doing 26,000 steps, which put me in 5th place in my group. 

We had another outstanding day of hiking and camping.