Brainard Lake is a recreation area in the Arapahoe National Forest west of the north Denver metro area. Besides Brainard, there are numerous other small high altitude lakes accessed by foot trails. A short distance west is the Indian Peaks Wilderness.
Brainard Lake with Indian Peaks Wilderness in background, Photo by Jon Bradford
I'm not a real big fan of National Parks or other sites of natural beauty visited by thousands of other people at any given day of the year.
Brainard lake certainly fits the description of a heavily used area. There is parking around the entire length of the paved road that encircles the lake as well as at the two trail head parking lots. A nine dollar entrance fee and numerous vault toilets complete the picture.
The flip side is that my wife likes walking where there are many other people on groomed trails, married life is a compromise. I always enjoy being out doors and the kids, well, kids are kids.
The $9 payment to a concessionaire reminded me of the recent unresolved court case in Arizona over fees for access to a national forest. Seems we've privatized Smokey the Bear. I'd much rather my National Forest were managed by federal employees making a good federal wage with benefits. Another good reason for taxes.
Use was moderate for mid summer, the employee at the trail head (sorry I won't say Ranger) said on a busy day most summers they get 500 hikers at each trail. The trails themselves were natural and without imported crushed rock etc. Many of our fellow hikers had dogs who were surprisingly well mannered and almost always leashed.
The trails aren't on the way to any famous 14,000 foot peaks, or climbing areas so I didn't see many hard core hikers though I did see thousands of dollars of specialized gear and clothing. A muddy trail quickly became intermittent bits of snow and then larger drifts to walk over.
At the first lake most people milled about with no obvious trail to follow, only the signs admonishing us to stay on the trail poking up through the snow. After lunch on a piece of dry ground we went back.
I found my usual cynicism more muted this time.
These lakes and the heavily used trails serve a valuable purpose beyond saving the less trafficked places. The extremely high number of humans and dogs no doubt run off the wildlife. There are no elk in what is prime habitat. I saw no chipmunks in the trees on either side of the trail for reasons you can well imagine. By concentrating the use in a very few areas, other areas, less heavily used, are easier able to support animals. Also people are one of the primary intended uses of recreation areas in Forests, it's good that people are enjoying themselves in the outdoors.
My only real complaint was the leaving of dog feces, sometimes on the trail, sometimes in little bags for the workers to pick up. Do people think it's someone else's job to deal with feces?
The snow is deep. Many people were expecting normal mid summer dry trails, conditions were more like spring with lots of snow. I think much of the snow will still be here when we get our first dusting of fresh stuff late in August.
July 16, 2011 above Mitchell Lake Indian Peaks Wilderness Colorado