Brainard Lake Snowshoeing (February 2009)

Wed March 11, 2009

A few weeks ago a couple of us went for a snowshoeing hike close to Boulder. The Brainard Lake area is about 35-45 minutes from Boulder. During the winter the road to the lake is closed. The road is open during the summer and you have to pay to get into the area. You can either take the road or one of the trails north or south of the lake. On the south side there are separate trails for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The snow coverage on the road is spotty and you can walk it without snowshoes (unless there was a recent heavy snowfall). The trails are pretty reliably covered in snow.< This first picture is the view when you get to the lake.

Even though there was not much snow cover in the open (Colorado is having windy winter again), the lake was frozen. After reaching the lake and getting a snack, we headed up to Long Lake, not far from Brainard Lake.

Here is a close up of the patterns in crusty snow on the lake. (These are not fun to snowboard over...I tried at Loveland in one of the badly windblow areas.)

After Long Lake we went through some trees, maybe following a trail, but with several feet of snow on the ground, does it really matter? Then we took it easy and went back on the road.

No trip up there is complete without passing through the "scenic" town of Ward, CO, where the side of the road is a junkyard. It's off the Peak-to-Peak highway, but Lefthand Canyon road goes right through it.