High in Colorado

Approaching the summit of Middle Bald Mountain

I joined the Red Feather Lakes Library (Colorado) Hiking Group on a short hike to the summit of Middle Bald Mountain ("Middle Baldy") in the Roosevelt National Forest on Monday, August 13.  The hike was short; we drove most of the way to the top, then climbed a few hundred feet to the summit.

The drive to approach the summit was long and challenging.  The route was almost completely on dusty dirt roads, and as the roads ascended, their quality deteriorated.  We ended up driving much more than hiking.

Nevertheless, the 360-degree view from the summit (11,002 feet) was spectacular.

View southwestward from the summit of Middle Bald Mountain

The best scenery lay to the southwest, where we could see snow patches in the mountains of the Rawah Wilderness and a portion of the Cache la Poudre River canyon.

Lunch at the summit.  North Bald Mountain (not bald) is in the distance at the right.

North Bald Mountain and South Bald Mountain (11,003 feet) were each about two miles away.

Yours truly (top left) at the summit with fellow hikers

Yours truly at the summit.  The deep cleft just to the left of me in mid-distance is the canyon of the Cache la Poudre River that rises in Rocky Mountain National Park

View eastward from the summit of Middle Bald Mountain

The east scarp of Middle Baldy is a dramatic, sheer drop of several hundred feet.  It was windy at the top--and more than a little scary to be at the edge.

The distance in the images is hazy because of the fires burning in California and, to a lesser degree, further west in Colorado.

Orange lichens; there were neon chartreuse lichens, too

A pasqueflower in bloom near the summit.  As its name implies, this should be blooming around Easter

After lunch at the summit, we hiked back to the trail and road that brought us near the peak.  This portion of the national forest is criss-crossed with very rough tracks used by off-road vehicles.  We decided to walk one of these woods roads for a short distance, but soon came across several noisy off-road vehicles in the forest.  Our group got discouraged and we retreated back down the mountain--a harrowing repeat of the drive up the mountain a few hours earlier.  Hikers hate ATVers.

Despite the short distance we covered, the view from the top made the trip worthwhile.