Hunters Lake-Table Mountain, August 2016

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We did the hike "backwards" in that we went clockwise around Hunter Lake. No moose at the lake today, but moose sign was seen nearby.

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Hiking through the spruce forest south of the lake. Incredibily, there are pockets here and there that did not burn in the West Fork fire 3 years ago, and have not been killed by the spruce beetle. Good to see some green conifers!

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Here we are climbing through an area that was burned, but now has lots of fireweed, and some young spruce did survive.

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Near the base of the Stairsteps. At this point, we've climbed around 700 ft, to 12,100. The next section of the trail steps us up another 400 ft in half a mile of crumbling rock.

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Atop Table Mountain, many Rosy Paintbrush festoon the alpine grassland.

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Most of the group has decided that this is a great place to take in the view, eat some lunch, and catch their breath.

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Three of us, Chris in the distance, MA, and myself, decided that a bit more exercise would be good, and that the weather would hold long enough for us to reach the "summit" of Table Mountain, a little under a mile from the lunch stop.

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Her's a view looking roughtly south from the summit of Table Mountain, with Treasure Mountain near center and Squaretop right of center.

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Panorma of the San Juans from the summit of Table Mountain. Really the summit is only a rise of 100 ft or so on the end of the long ridge that makes up Table. It doesn't feel like much of a peak, but is about 30 ft higher than Pagosa Peak, at 12,688 ft. Despite the smoke and haze, the view really is spectacular.

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Looking back tto the north, along the ridge we walked to get to the high point of Table.

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In these alpine grasslands, the cairns are built to withstand harsh conditions, about 4 ft tall.

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Descending the Stairsteps

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A bee nectaring on Colorado Columbine

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Alongside the rocky towers of the Stairsteps

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Brooks descending the Stairsteps. This gives an idea of the scale. From here, we finished our loop through the woods on the ridge west of Hunter Lake. No photos, because we were trying to get out before the weather went south, and catch up to the group who didn't go all the way to the summit. Both of which we did!