[Harper Lake Trailhead] Harper Lake Loop + Powerline Trail

AUG 17, 2024 SAT 10:48 am

32c/90f | Sunny | 13% humidity | 5,619ft highest point

A nice, easy hike at a not super popular trailhead in the neighboring city of Louisville. I wanted to do a lake hike for a change, but I didn’t want to go to one of the bigger/nicer ones like Standley lake, because there would certainly be a crowd on a Saturday.

Parking lot experience rating

I parked at the Davidson Mesa lot across the street, but it was surprisingly vacant for a weekend day.

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Tunnel to the lake. The crickets inside it think it’s night? Also swallow nests on every light fixture.

According to the map, this “Lake to Lake” trail goes quite far. I’m interested in hiking the whole thing some day.

I thought the lake would provide some kind of cooling on a hot day, but it doesn’t.

Nice contrast between the blue water and orange floats

The look of the rocks underwater fading into the turquoise gradient always reminds me of Lake Michigan.

A bunch of old men in fishing outfits staring at miniature sailboats?

There’s a split in the trail at the eastern edge of the lake that I didn’t notice before. I saw on my map that it goes to another smaller lake, so I decided to make a detour.

Turns out this is part of a much bigger network of trails in Louisville than I imagined. I definitely want to check out some of these other ones at some point.

Why is there a big patch of sweet peas growing on the side of the trail?

When I got closer to the smaller lake at the end of my planned detour, I realized it was actually a reservoir. It also required me to go down this creepy, overgrown path to get close to it.

…Yeah. I’m glad ticks are rare in Colorado.

Well, there is a reservoir there…

Hint of mountains looking the opposite way

The path just ends at a fence here. There’s a weird wooden step stool thing that I think you’re supposed to use to cross the fence? No idea if it’s “official” or installed by the community.

I was curious what was on the other side, but I didn’t want this to be a super long hike, so I will be back another day to find out. Too bad there was no real view of the reservoir.