As mentioned, Cache is located by the confluence of the Poudre and the Chapin. It’s fascinating to experience this broad open space. The valley is covered with grass, willows and marsh, punctuated by what I believe are lateral and terminal moraine. The moraine are generally drier, hard packed and visually pleasing, forming all sorts of interesting landforms. And all of this is surrounded by forested hillsides and mountains. The rivers are bordered by thick forest, though some of the green is marred by the sickly red of beetle killed pines.
At Cache, the campsite is south facing, residing in lodgepoles, including many dead. We hope the winds stay light, setting shelters in here, though we’ll more than likely sleep under the stars. Later in the trip we did ask a park ranger about the dead trees, and how concerned we were to setup tents and stuff under these trees and he mentioned the park service is thinking about issuing a policy of ‘dispersed campsites’, sort of what we ended up doing by setting shelters out on the borders by live trees.
The sun’s warmth is welcome as we lay around out in the meadow drinking in the views. The sound of the river is intoxicating to the point where you could swear you’re floating with the water, totally relaxed. Earlier we saw a ptarmigan or grouse, with young. The thought occurred this place will explode with wildlife.
There are some nice places to day hike here. Up river are rolling ridges crossing the river valley, and as you reach the peak of one, you’ll see another uphill and so on, seems to be infinite. Now and again a glimpse is caught of a huge expanse of valley to be stopped by a bend in the river. On a hike up this way from Cache, we chanced upon a huge flat area covered in dried out, short grass. So flat in fact, we played Frisbee in comfort, without worrying about twisting ankles or running into boulders or falling down ditches (that’s later, tomorrow!). Nothing like throwing disc in the middle of nowhere in the blazing sun and azure sky. This place is verdant, bursting with life, screaming with bird song, rippling water and insects flitting about. Another nice thing about this place is the ponentilla garden, and area festooned with the yellow flowering bush. And all this amidst a blazing array of wildflowers. A nice option on this hike is you can do it in tevas as long as you’re careful and don’t stray too far from the river.
This is the scene near Cache. The campsite itself is to the right, tucked back in the forest, reached by a footpath.
This spot was awesome; we could walk in the river and cool off. Across the way is a nice gravel bar in which upriver previous folks built barriers to impede the river's flow, but long since washed out enough so the river flow was strong.
The Desolation peaks are viewed looking east from our site at Cache. This is looking into the park, somewhere near the Mummy range (mostly that is to the left, North).
The picture doesn't do justice to the amount of open space we existed in. It's huge, and the gushing water sound adds to the experience of isolation and nature.
The moon rise over the Chapin valley. We caught this later on our last hike at Cache, where we found the actual confluence of the Poudre and Chapin. You can actually notice the Poudre River widen and increase in flow after this.
Even though the sun was going down, the weather was mild. It made for an enjoyable visit at this wonderful place. Next post another day hike in this area......
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