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We woke up early at our Mineral Creek campsite and made breakfast. Fuller and I sent our wives back to Ridgeway to pick up some inflatable canoes for the next day. The rest of us headed a few miles up Mineral Creek to the Ice Lakes Trailhead. The ascent began in a thick pine forest, crossed a stream with many scenic waterfalls, traversed an avalanche field, and leveled out in a wide, quasi-level basin. This is known as the lower basin. The basin was a couple of miles wide with numerous small streams flowing throughout. Spectacular waterfalls could be seen in all directions cascading over the ridges, which lead to numerous peaks over 13,500 ft. Alpine flowers and vegetation were abundant and colorful. It was a beautiful day for a hike.
After the first few hours of strenuous hiking, the lower basin allowed us a chance to regroup as we walked. As we crossed the basin, through large fields of skunk-weed, we began to look for a place for lunch. Wow, did we find one! Across the basin a mile or two was a stream that ran through two huge boulders that leaned on each other in a tepee fashion. The stream had a nice waterfall in the middle of the "tepee". It was here we caught our first glimpse of many Marmots. A field of Blue Columbines, among other flowers, was adjacent to the trail here as well.
After lunch, we continued another moderate ascent from the lower basin to the upper basin. The next ascent took us up the ridge to the upper basin, along a stream with the beautiful waterfalls we had admired for the past hour. The trail broke away from the streams at the end to top the ridge up to the upper basin, which contains the Ice Lakes. We had to cross a couple of snowfields during the final push up to ridge, and at this point Fuller and I dropped well behind Michael, Ravi, Nikki, and Bill (their dog). The elevation had finally slowed the lowlanders. We came out in the upper basin at the headwaters of the stream and the Lower Ice Lake. We eventually found the rest of our group. Michael and Nikki had already settled down for a nap as Ravi played next to the most gorgeous turquoise lake I have seen. This was the Lower Ice Lake, and we had finally arrived...four hours later.
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Hike begins at 10:22am at the trailhead; elev. 9,827 ft. |
 We cross a stream over the logs |
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Ravi and I at one of many beautiful waterfalls |
 Michael and Ravi take a break |
 I take a much needed break on a rock |
 Mineral Creek and the valley below |
 Fuller hikes through the lower basin |
 A mirror lake in the lower basin |
 Spectacular series of waterfalls between the basins |
An amazing diagnol waterfall |
 Ravi, Michael, & Nikki at the leaning rocks during lunch |
 A view of the lower basin |
 A stream of water sprays us over a ledge |
 Another one of the many waterfalls in the lower basin |
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Fuller makes the final climb to the upper basin |