As you will soon see, the theme of Wild Basin is WATER -- glorious water in streams, waterfalls, and beautiful lakes. So come with me for a glimpse of the outstanding hiking opportunities in this southeastern corner of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Many casual visitors to the Park miss Wild Basin, the entrance to which -- and yes, we do now have an entrance station there -- is about a dozen miles south of Estes Park. Even before we cross the official boundary of Rocky Moutain National Park we come to the superb view across Copeland Lake to the far end of Wild Basin, dominated by Copeland Mountain with its huge glacial cirque. Copeland, incidntally, is a "kettle" lake, formed when a large body of ice was separated from, and over-ridden by, the glacier -- and melted when the glacier retreated, leaving this "kettle" in the landscape.

We continue into the Park on an impassable road -- not really, tho trailers are prohibited beyond a parking area about a mile from the highway -- -- until we come to the Wild Basin Trailhead and Ranger Station about two miles from the highway. (Old timers may remember, as I do, when there was actually a small campground at Wild Basin, but because of the narrow valley it was abandoned about 1960 to provide more parking space).
So let's start up the trail.

Almost immediately we come to Copeland Falls and only a couple of miles up the trail is Calypso Cascades, named obviously for the calypso orchids which are sometimes seen in this area.

Another mile and we reach the first (and sometimes last) destination of almost everyone who hikes in Wild Basin, Ouzel Falls. Incidentally, as we were hiking parallel to North St. Vrain Creek, I hope you observed the water ouzel, a little grey bird which nervously perches on rocks barely above the water, bouncing up and down, and occasionally diving into the water to feed on aquatic insects. (I never really believed the story that people have come running to rangers to report "the bird that dived in the creek and committed suicide".) I can never resist the urge to put my camera on a tripod and shoot this at 1/8 second to get the cotton candy effect of the water and I confess I've got LOTS of pictures of this scene. Incidentally, note the horizontal log across the bottom of the falls; for many decades this was a trademark of Ouzel Falls, but a year or so ago it collapsed.

Although today we shall continue on the main trail (or so I regard it) to Thunder Lake, there are various opportunities to explore numerous side trails, so many I can hint at only a few: on the left is Finch Lake and on the right is Lion1 Lake (which is on the trail leading to -- guess what -- Lion2 and Snowbank).

Or one can branch off to Ouzel Lake through an area which was burned by a fire in the fall of 1978. These pictures, taken in that area in 1982, show some regeneration of vegetation, particularly (yellow) arnica and (magenta) fireweed.

And after a few more miles ... nontrivial miles I thought, even in my youth ... we come to Thunder Lake!!! Be sure to note the snowbank just below Boulder Grand Pass in the upper left of this scene, for very shortly we shall get a very intimate view of this object.

I digress for a moment. At Thunder Lake there is an NPS patrol cabin which, when not needed for official business, was available to rangers on their lieu days for exploration of the area. On one of the neatest trips I took into Wild Basin, I spent the night at the patrol cabin, and the next morning took off cross-country (no trail) to Eagle Lake ... and just by chance of course dropped into Box Lake, where the fishing was reported to be quite good and confirmed the rumor by catching my limit within about 20 minutes. Safety Message: one learns from the unfortunate experience of others that when hiking alone (as I did most of the time), one should leave a "trail" of where one is going and when one expects to return. So on this trip I left a note on my refrigerator at home, a note on my car, and also a note in the patrol cabin so, should I have an accident and fail to return on schedule, the rangers would know exactly where to look for me. And when one leaves such messages, it is imperative to GO WHERE YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING; do not change your mind. Dr. Sampson did so in 1915 and he was found only by accident 17 years later. There are several people who have vanished within RMNP and never been seen again.

So below we see the Thunder Lake Patrol Cabin and Eagle Lake where the spire in the distance is called, appropriately I suppose, the "Eagle's Beak". And below that is Box Lake ... though I wouldn't guarantee the fishing is still as good as when I was there. But I make no pretense to expertise in fishing, so it may be even better. If not, the scenery will compensate for your disappointment.

In my early years as a ranger, we often conducted long ranger trips into the back country -- Lawn Lake, Fern & Odessa Lakes, Black Lake, Sky Pond, the Andrews Glacier, Shelf and Solitude, even the Gorge Lakes -- and Thunder Lake. On one such trip to Thunder Lake, as people relaxed at the Patrol Cabin I asked if any were interested in climbing to the top of Boulder Grand Pass -- and as I recall there were about 1/2 dozen.

After a bit of huffing and puffing we found ourselves at the Lake of Many Winds, with a very disagreeable scree slope between us and our destination. Remember the snowbank just below Boulder Grand Pass that I told you to make a note of from Thunder Lake; here it is.
And after even more huffing and puffing -- and some intricate footwork -- we scrambled to the brink and looked back at our accomplishment: Lake of Many Winds at our feet, Thunder Lake at the bottom of the valley -- and Falcon Lake had come into view on the left. In fact, straight up from Falcon Lake we see a glimmer of Keplinger Lake, named for a member of Major John Wesley Powell's party which camped nearby and from that point made the first ascent of Long's Peak in 1868.

We wasted no time hurrying over the summit of Boulder Grand to look down into the East Inlet. In the far distance, over a "pass" we can catch a glimpse of Grand Lake. In the immedidate foreground we see Lake Verna, Spirit Lake and (they ran out of names) Fourth Lake -- and in fact Fifth Lake lies below our feet to the left, but out of view in this photo. Such an arrangement of lakes is very common in glaciated valleys where the glacier moves down the valley and in sequential order digs a little deeper into the bedrock, slides over bedrock, digs in again and so forth. This configuration apparently reminded some geologist of the rosary so they are often called "paternoster" lakes. Our only regret is that by this time of the afternoon the skies are overcast, as they often are in the Park, and the scene is painted with a bluish haze.

Now what??

Bear Lake

Horseshoe Park

Trail Ridge Road

Grand Lake Area

Other Neat Stuff

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