Date: September 13, 2019
Location: Indian Peaks Wilderness Area
Distance: 10 miles
Elevation Change: 2000 feet up and 2000 back down
Group: Mike, Kaitlin, and Mat
I love the Indian Peaks Wilderness area. It does see a fair bit of pressure, but is a short drive from my house and has amazing scenery. It is also home to a lot of moose. We saw three separate bull moose on this trip and had the amazing experience of watching two of them joust.
Some other hikers came along just as I was making a quick video of the moose. One of the guys is talking about some elk he saw previously that were jousting (he didn't think these were elk). About that same time in the video you can hear the sharp smack of their antlers slamming against each other.
Bull moose in center of image
The moose hung out right next to the trail, so we had to go cross-country for a bit to get around them. It was a brisk morning and was pretty windy. Fall was starting to put in an appearance in some areas, but flowers were still present and the sky was cloud free.
We climbed past Lake Isabelle and up to the Continental Divide.
With windchill (thanks to my Kestrel weather meter) it was 22 degrees on top. We headed back down the way we came and spent some time at Lake Isabelle.
We made one last stop at Long Lake on the way out.
