Lake Isabelle

By Lale Lovell, Vice President

My Favorite Mountain Hike 

One of the joys of living in Colorado’s Front Range is being able to escape to the mountains when the summer heat is on.  In addition to Rocky Mountain National Park, there are other amazing nearby places, like Brainard Lake, where one can find some beautiful and cool mountain scenery. My husband and I decided to revisit one of our favorite hikes – Lake Isabelle – on a recent July day.   

Start Your Journey 

Brainard Lake takes a bit of pre-planning these days since you must have a parking reservation to get near the trails. The timed-entry reservation system opens two weeks ahead of time. I always print out my QR code because there is no cell service at the park entrance. The benefit of this system, though, is that there is ample parking once you get there! 

We arrived shortly after 8:00 am per our reservation time and parked near Brainard Lake. Brainard Lake is an amazing destination in itself, and there are plenty of picnic spots right around it. We, though, continued past it to the Niwot Cutoff Trailhead. Our destination is Lake Isabelle, which is 3 miles from the start with about 600 feet of elevation gain.  

Onward to Long Lake 

A bit of an uphill climb takes you to the beginning of Long Lake and into the Indian Peaks Wilderness. You start to get a glimpse of the mountains as you continue to the left on the Jean Lunning Trail to make your way around Long Lake. The snow doesn’t melt from this area until late June so there are a lot of wildflowers to admire along the way in addition to peek-a-boo lake views. Nice wooden bridges and causeways exist to keep you from trudging through mud and give a great vantage point for wildflower photos. 

Destination Achieved 

One last push up the rocky hill, keeping toward the glacier, and you are rewarded with an awe-inspiring view of Lake Isabelle! At 10,900 feet, it’s a tranquil scene, like many of the more famous lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park. Taking in unspoiled nature never gets old to me, and I was quite happy to revisit this beautiful spot that I have come to many times over the years.  We settled in for a snack on the boulders around the lake and spent some time soaking in the view. One can continue onward to the glacier or Pawnee Pass, but inevitably, the storms start rolling in, so we decided to head back. 

Predictable Weather 

Even though it was sunny skies when we got to the lake and the weather forecast suggested no storms, we were hit by a thunderstorm that turned into hail as we headed out. Every time we come here, there is weather right after noon. It’s amazing how predictable it is. But this time it passed quickly, and we sought an evergreen tree for protection, so we weren’t really affected. A few decades ago, however, we had our worst hiking weather experience on this trail – amazing hail and rain that soaked us and flooded the trail. So, we considered ourselves lucky this time!  

On the way back, we went on the other side of Long Lake, a continuation of the Pawnee Pass Trail, which created a loop trail in the middle of our hike. I’m a big fan of loops because I always want to explore more. Once we got to the end of Long Lake, we turned back onto the Jean Lunning Trail to make our way back to the Niwot Cutoff. The clouds were still a bit dark, but it was starting to break up! 

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Lale Lovell