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Mountain Hikingby Harold SearsHike Home | Site Home | Search Site |
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Mount Audubon
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The
Brainard Recreation Area is a popular center of activity in the Indian
Peaks, summer and winter, and the climb up Audubon is a surprisingly
popular hike. I once climbed Mt. Meeker, at 13,911 ft. and saw not a
soul the whole day. Audubon is a robust 13,223, but on a nice day you
can be pretty sure of company. We got a fairly early start,
so we wouldn't have to rush the afternoon thunder showers and made the
usual approach to our mountains, through pine and fir, over trickling
streams, and up graded switchbacks. Quite soon, we were at the treeline
and had wide views of the lowlands. We could look down on Brainard
Lake, Mitchell Lake, and even across at Left Hand Reservoir, that
seemed to hover above Brainard like a double-decker. Up on the tundra slopes, we
found garden after garden of alpine wildflowers, from tiny and delicate
to large and showy. I like the lichens, too, all the more because they
hardly seem alive, more like splashes of thick paint. We expect animals
to be cute or otherwise impressive and plants to be structurally
interesting, pretty … wonderful. We expect living things to make the
effort. I especially enjoy the lichens because, simple as they are,
they too make the effort. We looked east and got a different view of Boulder's Local Three:
Green Mt., Bear Peak, and South Boulder Peak. We see them every day
from the east, rising up at the edge of town. The view from the west is
reduced and contained. There is Sugarloaf, tucked below Green. Just on
the left edge of Green is the tip of the first Flatiron. I've been in
these places. I let the memories of other hikes wash over and ramble
through me. We climbed higher and got
wider and wider views. On the saddle below the final talus cone of
Audubon, we could see Longs Peak to the north, Paiute to the west, and
less and less familiar peaks going on forever. They are gray and white
and harsh. Down below are lakes that are high, cold, and not often
visited. I look at these and think, I really should go there; I wonder
if I could climb that one? Up the talus cone, the trail
becomes more social than planned, and we meandered a little. Also,
there are three or four "false summits" to give false hope. "Is that
the top?" Maybe. No. We came over a little rise, and the talus
continued up. But the peak did eventually appear. We were certainly on
top of the world. Lunch time -- we settled in
among the rocks. Even though we were on top of everything nearby, it
was like settling into a bathtub, slowly sinking into the mountains and
lakes and forests and letting them lap against us, all around. The sun
was bright, but we weren't sunbathing. We were mountain bathing --
every bit as therapeutic.
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Mitchell Lake.
Above the treeline, with Audubon in the distance.
A marmot, trailside.
Green, Bear, and South Boulder Peak.
On the saddle at the foot of the Audubon cone -- Longs Peak way in the distance.
Up the talus cone.
A view of the peak.
On top.
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| Getting There
From Boulder, drive north on Rt. 36. At the north side of town, you can take Lee Hill Rd. up and then into Lefthand Canyon, or you can continue north on 36 to Lefthand Canyon Drive, route 95. Take 95 up to Ward, turn north on the Peak to Peak highway, route 72, and then immediately left on Brainard Lake Rd. There is a fee for use, and trail maps are available. Drive to the Mitchell Creek Trailhead. The trail to Mitchell Lake starts to the left of the ranger station, and the Mount Audubon Trail starts to the right. In the image above, Brainard Lake is at the lower right. A trail map for all of Boulder County is available from the Boulder Area Trails Coalition (find link on home page). |
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| © Harold and Meredith Sears, Boulder, CO, harold@mountainhike.net. All rights reserved. |
