Mt. Zion: Leadville

Every year I forget how long it takes snow to melt, and there is more snow this year than there has been for awhile. The Turquoise Lake road is open (some small rocks on the road on the west side) but there are mounds of snow on the sides and the parking area for the Timberline Lake trailhead is inaccessible. So Iris and Murdoch endured a circumnavigation of the lake and we ended up at the Mt. Zion trailhead. The trail was somewhat muddy in places, and is closed to motorized traffic this time of year. It's plenty steep in places. We ran/walked up to the place where on New Year's 1999 Miranda and I snowshoed, set off some fireworks, and watched the lack of both action and Y2k havoc in Leadville below. Up in 18 minutes, down in 13.