Blue Lake via Mitchell Lake Trail
If you're looking for a mild/moderate Colorado hike full of beautiful Colorado scenery, keep reading. This hike has some of just about everything but isn't very difficult. The hike up to just Mitchell Lake is really quick/easy, just a mile...then its two more to get up to Blue Lake. I would suggest hitting both as getting up to Blue Lake isn't too difficult and as you can see, behind those sweet ColoradoCool hats, the scenery is well worth a moderate Colorado hike.
Located in the Roosevelt National Forest, Mitchell Lake trailhead is north of Nederland, not difficult to find on Google. We hit this hike on the 4th of July, so it was obviously busy (we have also been up in this area on a Saturday in the winter to snowshoe and it was busy then too, so if you can hit it on a weekday that would be prime, but either way we've always had a great time) Oh also, dogs have to be on a leash, but Raji still had an awesome time.
We got to the parking lot about 6 am and it was almost full, but once on the trail the traffic wasn't too bad. Right off the bat the scenery is great. The weather was gorgeous for us and its so green up there, the colors are so full and vivid - goes great with some dope ColoradoCool Apparel. ;) There is a stream running along the trail with a few log bridges, wildflowers, three lakes, ponds and even some moose roaming around. (We got SO CLOSE to getting a great view of a momma moose and her calf, just barely glimpsed her hind legs as they disappeared behind the trees...such a bummer! We were pretty bummed we had missed the moose until......we scoped a marmot WEARING A COLORADOCOOL HAT!!! NO JOKE! What other local Colorado Apparel companies can say the local marmots are reppin their gear?!?! NONE of them! Ahh man, so epic.
I know what you're thinking....."you guys paid that marmot to wear that ColoradoCool Hat !" I swear, we didn't pay him a dime, that was legit! Ok ok Ill stop bragging...back to the hike.
Like I said, you get a little bit of everything on this hike. Three miles there, three miles back and we would highly suggest giving yourself plenty of time to kick it up at Blue Lake for a bit. There is plenty of space for everyone to spread out and enjoy the fresh air, waterfall and nice clear lake. We spent about four hours in total as we were in no hurry to leave. Would highly suggest checking it out! Make sure to look for the marmot in the ColoradoCool hat! Until next time...Cheers! P.S-Make sure to snag some ColoradoCool Apparel for yourself ASAP...you don't want a whistepig stuntin harder than you, do you?
