Long Lake and Lake Isabelle are located within the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. To reach the IPWA, you actually have to go through the Brainard Lake Recreation Area and (at the time of this writing) an entrance fee of $9 was being charged. If you arrive before the booth is manned, there is a self-pay station. To get to the entrance road near the small mountain town of Ward, I start off following Canyon Blvd west out of Boulder. Canyon Blvd turns into twisty, curvy CO 119 and takes you up to Nederland. At the traffic circle in Nederland, take the Peak to Peak Highway (CO 72) north. Once you reach Ward, watch for a sign on the right for the Brainard Lake Recreation Area (the entrance road is actually to your left, though).
Note: The “winter gate” at the entrance station is closed from around about late October through late June or even early July. There are no set dates for the closing/opening of the winter gate, which is more than a bit frustrating, so just be aware that if you arrive and the gate is closed, you will have to park there & hike back the road into the area (FYI: It’s a bit over 1 ½ miles from the winter gate to Brainard Lake).
The parking area at the Long Lake Trailhead fills up fast, so get there early or be prepared to park down the road and hoof it back up to the trailhead. Even this may not work later in the day when there is literally no place left to park in the entire area. So get there early.
Okay, so once you actually start off on your hike, you’ll come pretty quickly to Long Lake (10,524 ft). It’s less than a quarter of a mile from parking lot to a trail junction at the eastern end of the lake. To get to my favorite spot to photograph Long Lake, take a left at this junction. You’ll cross a footbridge that will take you over Long’s outlet stream, to the southern shore of the lake. (The photo below was taken from the bridge, looking toward the lake.)
Follow the trail up around to the right, through a large meadow that is full of wildflowers (in season, of course), and head into the trees.
Shortly after you enter the forest, watch for a faint side trail off to the right, going down through the trees toward the lake. If you follow this trail, it’ll deposit you on some boggy ground right on the lakeshore. If you don’t mind getting your boots a bit muddy you can look around there for some interesting foreground and shoot westward down the lake, with the Indian Peaks in the background.
To get back on the Pawnee Pass Trail and headed up to Lake Isabelle, you can either continue on around the Jean Lunning Trail or backtrack to that trail junction near the footbridge.
The Pawnee Pass Trail climbs steadily through the forest before a final, open stretch that rises quickly and brings you to Lake Isabelle (10,892 ft). Not counting any detour you take to photograph at Long Lake, the hike to Isabelle is 2.1 miles. Once I arrive at Isabelle, I like to head over to the left to the lake’s outlet area where two small waterfalls are formed by Isabelle’s runoff. You can get some nice compositions in this area, with Navajo (13,409 ft), Apache (13,441 ft), and Shoshoni (12,967 ft) Peaks serving as a stunning backdrop.
After photographing at Isabelle a bit, I decided to take an unplanned excursion farther up the Pawnee Pass Trail. I found that the trail climbs steeply above Isabelle, crossing a couple of footbridges, to a point where you will come to a great view back down to Isabelle. When I reached this spot, I was shooting into the sun, so unfortunately I didn’t bring back a good picture from this overlook. Between Isabelle and the overlook, there were a couple of sections of trail still covered by snow (below). But there were also quite a few wildflowers all along the trail and I can see how just a bit later in the summer, they would be really beautiful through here. Anyway, after the overlook above Isabelle, I continued on until I came to a series of large switchbacks that climbed steeply through the snow (the slope here was still a completely snow-covered expanse) to a rocky ridge quite a ways above me. Not knowing what all was above that point or how much farther the pass itself might be, I decided to turn back there.
I’d like to try for Pawnee Pass again after the snow melts a bit more, but I was very happy with the shots I got at Isabelle on this outing. Without a doubt, I consider Lake Isabelle to be one of the most beautiful spots I’ve come across in my hiking around Colorado, and the shot at the top of this post is one of my favorites from the past three years of photography. I hope you enjoy your visit to the Indian Peaks and I’m sure that you’ll also bring back some great shots that you’ll treasure.
Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~ Rich
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