A Short Visit to Frisco and one Last Twin Lakes Hike

 

Although afternoon thunderstorms were in the forecast every day this past week, Thursday was our second day of rain beginning in the morning and lasting until late afternoon. We took advantage of another rainy day by taking a drive to Frisco, CO, about 50 miles from Twin Lakes. We had never heard of Frisco until Ingrid listed it as one of her favorite Colorado mountain towns on Live Laugh RV. After reading her post I decided we just had to see the town and Dillon Reservoir area to find out if it was a place we might like to return to for a longer visit.

We drove a loop around the reservoir and looked at one of the forest service campgrounds that had only a few trees and some sites with wonderful lake and mountain views. The historical downtown was upscale touristy but very tasteful. We picked up a few groceries at Safeway and Whole Foods, and had a great black bean burger at Dillon Dam Brewery. And we sampled five of their beers, which although all very drinkable were not outstanding.

We could definitely see spending more time in this area, as the picturesque surrounding mountains offer lots of hiking opportunities. And at 9,000’ it’s a good place to escape the summer heat. It was raining so hard we didn’t take any photos except of the beer.

Yesterday we planned to hike a 2.2 mile trail to Interlaken, a partially restored 1880s resort on Twin Lakes. The woman in the visitor center gave us directions and a map but when I looked at the map I found another trail head that was much closer to our campground coming from the other direction that appeared to be about the same distance.

Start of the trail with a bridge over lovely Lake Creek.

We would be hiking part of the time on the Continental Divide/Colorado Trail, so I assumed it would be well marked, but it wasn’t. We took a couple of wrong forks, and after 2.6 miles and numerous rickety log creek crossings, we came to a sign that said Boswell Gulch and a crossing we were unwilling to make.

In the photo it looks like you could just step across, but it was deep, steep, and the “bridge” of tree limbs looked very shaky.

It ended up being a good place to turn around as the rain began when we were just about back to the car. That has happened to us on every hike we did during our pleasant but cold and wet week at Twin Lakes.

Many of the aspens are already changing color.

We passed ponds with several beaver dams and lodges but no beavers.

And we left this morning without making it to Interlaken. Have to leave something for next time.

We moved a short 50 miles south to Poncha Springs, and one of our favorite BLM boondocking areas. This time we stalked our friends Chuck and Carla, who stopped here for a few days before working their way back to Iowa via Denver.

As quiet as it is here and as few people as are camped in the area it’s hard to believe it’s Labor Day weekend.

Unfortunately the rain has followed us, but the drop in elevation from 9,200’ to 8,200’ has warmed things up a bit.