Palisades Lakes, Hidden Lake & Green Park Lakes — Friday, Oct. 6, 2023

This is one of my favorite trails for fall colors.  Today did not disappoint!  

I went up to Green Park via Hidden Lake to watch the sunrise.  After sunrise, I meandered down to the main Palisades Lake trail taking in all of the bright red, orange and yellow that lined the trail.  It was truly stunning.

The trail is dry.  Not dusty. Not muddy.  Perfect conditions. There were a few wildlife tracks right on the trail.  Elk, goat and some kind of cat.

I had the trail to myself.  Did not see anyone until back up to Sunrise Point.

I did not run across any wasps or wasp nests as mentioned in previous trip reports.

410 was open this morning after being closed for the past 4 days.  

Wildlife must have enjoyed the quiet!  There were groups of elk on the side of the road and sometimes on the road, starting at the most eastern Federation State Forest sign all the way to the turn off to Sunrise Rd.  In short, there were a lot of elk out this morning!  

On the way back, I sat for 30 minutes with no cars in front of me, as there is one way traffic at the Dry Creek construction area.  There was a very long line of cars on the other side of the construction, heading south - towards Sunrise.