Hiking – RMNP Ouzel Lake (almost)

CoorsTek Parking Lot, 612 10th Street, Golden ... 6:10AM, 6:15AM Departure

Possibly Home Depot in Boulder if enough people are interested - 6:30AM

We need to carpool to have as few cars as possible at Wild Basin TH.  I will need one person in each car to bring a National Park's Pass.

This is a really fun hike ... you won't want to miss it!!!  I call it "Ouzel Bambouzel" as we are NOT going all the way to Ouzel Lake.  But, we are going to an amazing viewpoint which is much prettier than the lake!!! 

We will start at the Wild Basin TH, visit Lower & Upper Copeland Falls, Calypso Cascade, Ouzel Falls and continue up the Ouzel Lake Trail until it intersects with the Bluebird Lake Trail, we'll continue a mere 1/10 of a mile more to a gorgeous viewpoint for lunch.  On the way back we will hike back on the Thunder Lake trail (more Calypso Orchid) for variety and to avoid crowds, then we'll stay on the Wild Basin Trail instead of visiting Copeland Falls again ... there is an amazing hillside with all sorts of wildflowers on it for our Grand Finale!!! 

The link to this hike is here

Once you're on the Caltopo Map, if you click on the little elevation symbol (on the upper left) it will bring up the elevation profile and you can move your mouse along to see exactly what direction we will be hiking.  

When I scouted this on June, 14th the creeks were at peak flow, we saw Calypso Orchid (aka Fairy Slipper), a fair amount of Rock Clematis and American Bistort in addition to the wildflower hill at the end of our hike.  The trails are fairly rocky.

If the weather looks bad, I may change this hike to the 27th or 29th.