Driving the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway to Nederland

On Friday, April 11th, Leon and I drove to Nederland to meet Avi for a late breakfast/early lunch since she was there for court. The drive was truly scenic, and we had a tasty brunch at New Moon Bakery & Cafe. Avi headed back to Louisville and we toured around a bit in Nederland. We got an unexpected show of a double-bladed helicopter picking up poles and setting them on the mountainside. 

Next, we drove to a nearby county-owned park called Mud Lake Open Space. The lake was misnamed - it was lovely. There were several loop trails, so we decided to do 2 intersecting loops. The trails were exceptionally well-marked (much better than national or state parks), but Leon and I managed to take wrong turns anyway, meaning that we had to backtrack twice. We got to a great viewpoint and took several pictures. The only problem was that I left my phone on the bench that was there. We realized my mistake about a half mile later. So, we backtracked again, this time uphill (ugh), but we retrieved the phone without incident. One thing for sure, Leon and I were not cut out to be pioneers. We would be lost in no time! What was supposed to be a 2.7-mile hike turned into a 4-mile hike. But it still wasn't too bad - the trail was almost completely snow free and the inclines were gentle.

Mud Lake - the name makes no sense!

Much of the hike was through forests composed of Aspens, Ponderosa pines and Lodgepole pines. There was some snow here and there but not nearly what we saw in RMNP. We were between 8,200 and 8,600 feet.

The bench where I left my phone.

Cool gnarly pine tree near the overlook.

Once we finished our hike, we traveled back to along the Peak to Peak highway and stopped at several beautiful vistas.

Mount Meeker, standing at 13,991 ft.

We returned to our temporary home, enjoying dinner at home. We watched the movie Flow. This is the animated movie with no dialogue, with a black cat as the protagonist. It was interesting and strange. I'll be thinking about it for a while.