Another day where every vista was more beautiful than the last. We started out from Bear Lake heading for Ptarmigan Tarns. I have more than enough photos of Bear Lake, but the fall colors were glowing around the lake.
A little further up the trail, aspens were framing Long's Peak with its new dusting of snow.
Up the trail to Lake Helene, and then further up Odessa Gorge to two tarns buried in the loose rocks left behind by Ptarmigan Glacier
After arriving at the tarns, we looked further up the gorge to yet another cirque. It didn't look too far, so we decided to keep on climbing and see if another lake was hidden from view. I think that all the rocks in this section are just sitting on top of an active glacier. With every footstep, rocks were moving underneath. Nothing was stable. Even the parts that looked like bare earth turned to mush if you stepped on them. Views of Notchtop were amazing as you got higher up the gorge.
We made it to the base of the Ptarmigan glacier - no hidden lakes. Just tons and tons of rock with water rushing somewhere down underneath. All the rocks that have fallen from the right side were black. From the left side, all were brown. They met in the center of the gorge, right near the bottom of the glacier.
The views as we descended back down to the tarns were beautiful - worth the effort to get further up the gorge.
Arriving back at Bear Lake, we found more aspens framing the view
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