Mt Zirkle Wilderness 2023

This is Grace again with pictures from our Colorado sibling backpacking trip in August. Enjoy!

Ready to go!

Due to the steady increase in elevation, we were already tired by the time we got to the wilderness boundary which was only 1.5-2 miles in.

At some point there had been fire through this area so there were a lot of trees down, but the trail was clear.

Davis Peak. We walked around one side of this mountain then went up it from the other side the last day.

Stump Park

There were signs of elk everywhere.

The next morning we went downhill about a mile and stopped at the creek to fill up with water.

Later we crossed the Encampment River and followed that the rest of the day.

We took a break at a small lake.

Lunch break

After lunch we left Silas behind to fish while the rest of us hiked up the drainage to the Continental Divide.

It looked like it might rain and we didn't want to carry all our stuff, so we set up a tent and left most of our gear there.

The divide itself wasn't much to see, but there was cool scenery going up there.

When we got back, it was looking like rain so we set up the other tents as quick as we could and got done just in time. It rained most of that evening.

The next morning was chilly and wet.

The boys fished while we waited for the sun to get over the mountain. There were tons of these little guys and they were all chasing the hook, so they were catching one on almost every cast.

We hung around for awhile letting everything dry off before packing up.

Up to this point the trail had been clear for the most part. But shortly after we started that morning, the trail began to climb steeply and it looked like this the whole way up. It was some of the most brutal hiking we'd done.

Sometimes you could step over the trees, but usually you had to find a way around. This one was easier to crawl under than go over or around.

It took us around 4 hours to go a little over 2 miles to where these 7 little lakes were. We took a good long break and ate lunch there.

We went downhill for a little bit and filled up with water from a stream.

Then it was uphill again, but the trail was better.

And then we got here and decided it the effort it took to get there was worthwhile.

So we sat and enjoyed the view for awhile.

We set up camp on the edge of the trees.

Probably the highlight of the trip was watching the sunset from the mountain side that night.

In the morning, there were several elk grazing on this hillside.

That morning we went up to the top of Davis Peak where you could see a long way in every direction. Including everywhere we had been in the last 3 days.