La Plata 4

The Basin

Target: The Lip of the Basin
We gained enough altitude to see the lip of the basin but La Plata was still not in view. We pick a notch in the lip as our target, it is still a long way away and up. The steepness and duration of this climb was beginning to wear on me. There were portions that were so steep that my middle-aged south Texas legs would only carry me five or six steps, then I would stop for a brief 30 second rest. And resting was really no rest at all because of the energy expended to maintain my balance on the steep side hill...

We trudge on and finally make it to the final pitch of our target - the lip of the basin. I took this picture right before climbing the final pitch. The Colorado wildflowers above the treeline rival those of the springtime in Texas.

Wildflowers along the creek...

As we make it up and over the lip of the basin, we realize it is not the real lip of the basin. The real lip was a little higher up. We also realize that rocky ridge that is now in view does NOT look like the Southwest Ridge of La Plata. No panic yet because sometimes the two dimensional pictures do a poor job of representing what mountains really look like, there may be hope for us yet.

A picture of my feet, too tired to walk any higher, but...

Here is a video that I shot between the "false" lip and the "true" lip of the basin. I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again, this is one of the most beautiful hikes I have been on. Every direction is stunning!

We make it to the crest of the real lip to find this beautiful mountain lake!

Beautiful Alan Lake!

The only problem with this beautiful lake is that there is no lake in the basin of La Plata's Southwest Ridge, we hit the wrong target...If you watch the video closely you will see two men. Turns out the hikers that we were following were no hikers at all but fishermen...