LAKES OF THE CLOUDS
October 20, 2007
By Tim Briese
The Lakes of the Clouds lie at the head of a scenic valley on the east side of the Sangre de Cristos. Over the past few years I have hiked up many of the valleys in this beautiful range to explore their alpine treasures, and this one turned out to be as splendid as any of them.
I drove to the Gibson Creek Trailhead a few miles outside of Westcliffe with my wife Teresa and lab Allie and hit the trail at about 8:30 a.m. The wind was blowing viciously hard this morning in advance of an approaching autumn snowstorm. The gale ruled out a climb to any summit today, as far as we were concerned, and was blowing so hard that at first I was concerned about a tree blowing over on us. We hiked northward on the Rainbow Trail for a while through dry, scruffy timber, past several hunters= ATV=s parked along the trail. Occasionally we spotted hunters off in the woods and hoped they would not start shooting at anything that moved, like us, for example. After a mile and a half we turned left onto the Lakes of the Clouds Trail and shortly after entered the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, leaving the hunters and ATV=s behind.
The trail climbed briskly upward and rounded the nose of a ridge before taking us into the Swift Creek drainage. The route leveled off for a while as we hiked through a pleasant grove of leafless aspens. As we climbed along the north side of Swift Creek we were treated to occasional views through the trees of Spread Eagle Peak to the south. After hiking about four miles up the Lakes of the Clouds Trail we reached the first of three scenic lakes, at about 11,500 feet elevation. There was a lone female hiker standing in the chilly wind near the lake, waiting for the return of her two companions who had gone further up the trail. These three hikers were the only other people we saw on the hike today, besides the hunters. We proceeded up the excellent trail, which curved around a second lake before gracefully climbing up to a third one. There were nice views from meadows around the lakes of three majestic 13ers that ringed the south side of the basin - Spread Eagle Peak (13,423'), Cloud Peak (13,524'), and Silver Peak (13,513'). We hiked above timberline to a point on the northwest side of the third and upper lake before turning around and heading back. There was remarkably little snow up this high for late October. I speculated that we might be the last hikers to come this far up the trail this year, if the approaching storm dumped as much snow here tonight as was forecast.
We found a nice grassy slope in the sun on the north side of the second lake to sprawl out and enjoy our lunch. There was a thin sheet of ice that covered the entire lake, except for a margin of open water a few feet wide around the shore. While we sat and ate our lunch an interesting phenomenon unfolded before our gaze. When the wind kicked up for a couple of minutes the entire sheet of ice, perhaps a quarter of a mile across, was pushed slowly by the wind toward the leeward shore, crashing it against rocks and closing the gap of open water on that side of the lake. Then, when the wind relented briefly the ice sheet slowly retreated, almost imperceptibly, back toward the windward shore. We watched and marveled at this interesting sight as it occurred over several cycles during the course of an hour or so. It was as if the icy surface of the lake were a giant living and breathing being.
About 1:30 we took our leave of the lakes and headed back down the trail. Clouds now obscured the sun and the temperature began to drop. At a trail junction part way down we went to the right and took the shorter Swift Creek Trail back toward the Rainbow Trail. After crossing the creek we hiked through an extensive stand of aspens where many had been cut down by beavers. According to my GPS the mileages posted on signs for the trails we took today were somewhat misleading. The Lakes of the Clouds Trail was stated to be 4.75 miles long, but I measured it to be at least a half mile less, and the Swift Creek Trail was posted as 2.75 miles long, but I found it to be more.
We returned to the Rainbow Trail and hiked rapidly back to the south toward the trailhead. We passed a hunter sitting in a secluded spot behind some trees overlooking a meadow as he waited hopefully for his prey to appear. He found it necessary to bundle up in a winter coat, gloves, and heavy hat while sitting motionless in the chilly breeze, in sharp contrast to us who strolled briskly by in shirtsleeves, warm from the exertion of our hike. A heavy haze filled the sky to the south, probably from dust kicked up by the strong wind blowing across the San Luis Valley today, while smoke rolled across the sky to the north from a fire in the northern part of the Sangres. We returned to the trailhead at 4 p.m., after hiking about 11 miles and climbing 2500 feet of elevation gain today. After eating dinner at Mr. C=s in Penrose we returned home that evening.
