On our last weekend in Boulder, Pat, Lauren, Jackie and I set our sights on the Indian Peaks wilderness- Rocky Mountain National Park's less-crowded neighbor to the south. The IPW is probably the most convenient wilderness area to get to from Boulder, but this was my first time out.
Our goal was the summit of Navajo peak, the range's third-highest. We hiked up the Pawnee pass trail from the Brainard lake rec area, past Long Lake and Lake Isabelle, and continued off-trail to the base of the Isabelle glacier. From here we worked our way to the scree gully below Navajo.
The wreckage of a C-47 airplane, which crashed here in 1948, lies scattered in the gully. One wing of the plane lies at the bottom, and the rest of the wreckage is located a 500-foot scree climb above, near where the gully reaches the Niwot ridge. We ascended this gully, past the airplane debris, to the ridgeline. The route then wraps around the back of Navajo and climbs to the summit. The scrambling was all pretty straightforward, though there are scary-looking precipices throughout.
The entire mountain was shrouded in fog while we were on it, so the drop-offs appeared to have no bottom and there was no view from the summit. Luckily, it did not rain, so we were spared another continuous cold shower such as the one we had on Longs a few weeks before. Lauren and I had some difficulty with the fog on the way down, while we were trying to find out how to get back to the ridge. Dramatically and seemingly instantly, the cloud lifted from the basin below us and revealed the ridge to our left. It literally changed from an opaque fog to airy sunshine in the span of a few seconds- which I thought was pretty cool.
Leaving from the Brainard Lake recreation area
6 August 2006
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The Indian Peaks wilderness: Navajo peak (left) and Apache peak.
6 August 2006
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Taking a break at Lake Isabelle
6 August 2006
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Navajo Peak (left)
6 August 2006
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Pat at Lake Isabelle
6 August 2006
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Pat, Jackie and Lauren
6 August 2006
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Marmots
6 August 2006
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I think this one looks like Pat.
6 August 2006
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Lake Isabelle
6 August 2006
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Waterfall above Lake Isabelle
6 August 2006
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Waterfall above Lake Isabelle
6 August 2006
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Pat looks for a way across the moraine field.
6 August 2006
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Clouds settled in midway through the morning- but it didn't rain.
6 August 2006
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Pat
6 August 2006
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Jackie
6 August 2006
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Jackie
6 August 2006
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Pat, Jackie and Lauren took the high road while I kept low and tried to take pictures of pikas.
6 August 2006
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Pika with a snack
6 August 2006
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Pika with a snack
6 August 2006
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Pat on the scree field beneath airplane gully
6 August 2006
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Pat and an airplane wing at the bottom of the gully
6 August 2006
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Pat and an airplane wing
6 August 2006
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Plane engine
6 August 2006
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Propeller
6 August 2006
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Propeller
6 August 2006
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The other half of the plane sits at the top of the gully, a steep scree climb up.
6 August 2006
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Lauren climbs the last bit out of the airplane gully
6 August 2006
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Lauren reaches the ridgeline of Navajo Peak
6 August 2006
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Pat climbs a weird rock formation (not the Dicker's peck) near the summit of Navajo.
6 August 2006
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Self-portrait on the summit. The summit was in a cloud, so there were no views to be had.
6 August 2006
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I was too much of a pansy to climb this thing like Pat did (there's a large cliff a foot or two behind me).
6 August 2006
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Clouds clear from the ridgeline during the descent.
6 August 2006
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We came up onto this ridgeline from the right. The other side is the City of Boulder watershed, which is off limits to hikers.
6 August 2006
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Lauren
6 August 2006
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Clouds clear briefly from the summit of Navajo, seen from the top of Airplane gully.
6 August 2006
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Lauren descends the gully
6 August 2006
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Clouds clear from Navajo, seen from the bottom of the gully.
6 August 2006
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I believe this formation is called "the chessmen."