Another Indian Heaven update (10/29)

[drm]

Three of us hiked in from Thomas Lakes on Sunday and went as far as Blue Lake. There was essentially no snow on the trail, and just very isolated patches off to the side. Up to Rock Lake the trail was in great condition, and then on the Blue Lake it was very soggy and wet - my nearly brand new waterproof boots worked great and I could walk through the puddles with dry feet! There were still some very mushy huckleberries in places and a few of the smaller shadier ponds were freezing over. On the drive there, down in the Wind River Valley, temps were in the 30s, but by the time we got to the trailhead much higher, temps were above 50. Inversion season has arrived.

Also, the 65 road is washed out again and closed. You need to get there via road 6507. Take the Wind River Road up and over Old Man Pass and about a mile past the left turn to Curyl Creek and the Lewis River, turn right on road 6507 (near Rush Snopark). Then it's 3 miles to road 65 and turn left for a half mile to the trailhead.

Conditions are great there now and the next couple of days may be it as the next storm could dump a lot of snow up there.

Thomas Lake

Rock Lake

soggy trail

colorful meadows

lunch at Blue Lake

[romann]

Nice - I'm surprised so much snow up there could melt so quickly. Of course the seasons reversed once more this past weekend. Rock crossing at Rock Lake is deep under water in your picture - it looked very different a few weeks ago.

[drm]

We were talking up there about the storm just a few days earlier that had dumped at least 5" of rain, and maybe twice that in a day or two. Many of the ponds we saw were probably created by that storm, and it probably filled in Rock Lake a lot too. At Rock Lake, I specifically looked for those rocks - they were way below the water surface, not just a few inches.