Chapter 9
Dayhike to Goodwin Lakes

This starts the second week of our vacation which will be a week of dayhiking with our friends Nora and Duncan from northern Virginia. The first half of the week we'll be hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains and then the second half we'll be in the Indian Peaks area just south of Rocky Mountain National Park.

While we were hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, we stayed in a real nice mountain rental house just outside of Westcliffe. It was way off the beaten path up a set of dirt/gravel roads. The house had lots of windows and open area. It worked out great for us.

For our first hiking day we went up to Lower and Upper Goodwin Lakes. It's a pretty simple 9.7 mile round trip hike. We started at the Comanche and Venable Trailhead which was a short 10 minute drive from the rental house. We followed the Rainbow Trail over to the Goodwin Lake Trail which then lead us to the Goodwin Lakes. We ate our lunches at the first lake, Lower Goodwin Lake. The we hiked the short 1/4 mile up to Upper Goodwin Lake. There was a fisherman there trying his luck at fishing while his wife relaxed on the rocky shoreline enjoying the weather, scenery and a book. From there, we turned around and followed the trail back to the car.