Shelf and Solitude

At least once a year I have to make the pilgrimage to Shelf and Solitude. A climb of almost 1000 feet from the creek below is worth every step up. Hanging on a bench, Shelf Lake guards the entrance to the rocky wonderland. Climb just a little higher, and the mountains display their secret Solitude. Arrowhead and Thatchtop surround the lakes while Powell peers on from the distance.

Twin Lakes

My third trip to Twin Lakes this summer. It's a pleasure to get off the beaten path, especially on a Sunday, and have a beautiful lake and a beautiful view all to ourselves. The lilies have bloomed, altering the lake ever so slightly.

One of the shallower lakes in the park, and surrounded by rocks, Twin Lakes was surprisingly warm on this beautiful summer's day. Gregor and Chris decided to go for a swim. I'm used to seeing people dive in and come right back out again in other lakes, but these two cruised around, enjoying the water.

Chris's shoes awaiting his return from the swim - what a way to spend the day.

Gorge Lakes

We had a 3:30 AM start for our hike to try to beat the storms on our attempt to visit as many of the Gorge Lakes as possible. We were already above treeline as the first light hit the Never Summers to the west of us.

After hiking up to over 12,000 feet, we descended down to the gorge that contains these beautiful, but rarely visited lakes, losing about 2000 feet to get down there.

Arrowhead Lake is the largest of the lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park. It dominates the gorge and can be seen from Trail Ridge Road from the Forest Canyon overlook. There are still more lakes to visit down there... one day we'll get to the rest.

Chasm Lake

Chasm Lake is one of my favorite destinations. Who could fail to be inspired while looking up almost 3000 feet to Longs Peak reflected in the lake? The clouds blow by, the view changes, you could stay here for hours.

Our group at Chasm - Maggie, Muneca, Alex, Linda, Kevin, Gary, Tommy, Theresa, and John

It's August and the snow field still lingers, the latest I have ever seen it. We slowly and safely make our way back again.

The outlet stream from Chasm Lake cascades over the surrounding rocks as Columbine Falls. Rocks define the landscape here, but bouquets of Columbine dot every crevice that allows a little soil to take hold.

Parika and Farview

On the west side of the park sits a range of mountains called the "Never Summers".While that is true in an ordinary summer, this year the range has been nearly inaccessible. High water on the Colorado River has washed out many of the bridges used to get over to the range. The overabundance of winter snow has only slowly started melting out, causing more flooding and unstable ground. But we decided to head to Parika Lake and Parika and Farview Peaks in the hope that I could to return to an area I last visited more than 15 years ago.

Although there were many downed trees and large patches of snow, the trail to Parika Lake was easy to follow. The forest is so different than the east side of the divide. Trees are larger and spaced further apart, wildflowers seem to be larger and more vibrant, and we hardly saw a soul in our 10 hours of hiking.

The huge snow field at the top of the saddle beyond the lake had melted out enough for us to follow the trail to the saddle. Views down Baker Gulch and over to the front range were beautiful. Longs Peak looks like an abnormality from this side, soaring above it's neighboring mountains.

It was all as gorgeous as I remembered - hiking up the last steep grassy slope, with tiny tundra wildflowers everywhere enticing you to stop and look. A perfect hike on a perfect day.

Bierstadt Lake

Sunset hikes can be another beautiful way to see Rocky Mountain National Park. The crowds are gone; the turbulent weather has passed - beauty and solitude are present in abundance. I haven't hiked up the Bierstadt Moraine in years - it's a hot and sticky trudge at midday. But start out at 6pm and the views are wonderful. If the wind has died down at Bierstadt Lake, the reflections of the front range mountains are perfection.

Mt Audubon

I have lost count of the number of times I have climbed Mt Audubon. It was one of the first summits I hiked. It was the first summit for my girls - each doing it when they were nine years old. I have spent my anniversary there. I can see it from my bedroom window. It is my special mountain, and I love to share it with others. Today we had the perfect day - blue sky, puffy clouds, shorts and T-shirt weather on the summit. We basked in the sunshine for over an hour.

Muneca was stunned to find that she had a friend on Mt Audubon. Jeffrey had hidden in another backpack for the trip to the summit. He was very protective of Muneca while they lunched in the rocky enclosure. .

Paul, Ian, Maggie, Bob, James, Cory, Rich and Jeffrey and Muneca at the summit.

This pretty well sums up how we all felt at the end of the hike. Where's the hot tub?

Bluebird Log or Blouzel Lake

With no way to make it to Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon, our destination for today's hike changed to Bluebird Lake. Calypso Cascades and Ouzel Falls are still crashing down, providing a cooling spray to all the sweaty hikers making their way past. As if all this snow wasn't enough, a landslide/avalanche had obliterated part of the trail about 10 days ago. I made the wrong choice, and headed to the right of the avalanche. Oh well - we had a great bushwhack up to a beautiful ridge looking up at Chapin. We renamed our lunch spot "Bluebird Log".

We stopped at Ouzel Lake on our way down, just to ensure that we got at least one lake in on the hike.

While my group ditched me and headed down the trail, I continued to take photos of one of the three moose we saw along the trail. Moose are becoming so much more common on the east side of the park in the last few years. I've gone from one sighting a year, to once a week.

Mills Lake

Yeah - the bridge to Glacier Gorge has finally been fixed by the Park Service. Mills Lake and beyond are open just in time to take our Belgian friends, Jean, Joelle, Alexander and Hugo up.

Little did we know that Alexander and Jean have a habit of swimming in high lakes in France and Switzerland. This might have been a little bit colder than they were used to.

Emerald Lake

Almost every week I have been leading one early morning photo hike. Although I dislike getting up at 4am as much as the next person, I have been rewarded by spectacular views and uncrowded trails. This morning the clouds over Longs Peak were gorgeous.

A cloud bank hung over the high peaks most of the day, reminding me of the "table cloth" that forms over Table Mountain in Capetown.

Just when we thought the day would hold no more surprises, the reflection in Dream Lake on the hike out caused us to take even more photos.

Chapin

I am supposed to lead a hike later in the week up to CCY (Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon) so I thought I would check out conditions. Fall River Road is still closed, but you can hike down from the alpine visitor's center. However, you aren't really supposed to go through the closed area, so I unsucessfully hunted for a way around all the closed signs. Once I got through to survey the snow on Chapin Pass, I decided I might as well carry on to Mt. Chapin. Pretty interesting being the only person out there on a beautiful July day!

The mummies always look so smooth and surprising on the back side, compared to their sheer fronts. Most of the snow on the back had melted out, making for an easy hike to the summit.

There is still a lot of snow in the area for mid July - a great combination of mid-summer greenery with snowcapped peaks.

Mt Lady Washington

Finally I was able to get to a peak! With all the snow, I've stayed down low so far this season. so the chance to stretch my legs and attack some rocks was welcome. We decided to climb Mt Lady Washington from the east - less trail and quite a few more rocks - almost a mile up with a gain of almost 2000 feet. But it was so fun to be on the granite again, and the view from the top as you climb over the last rock, and Longs Peak appears in your face is not to be missed.

Sarah on the summit looking for climbers on the Diamond.

We came down via the west ridge and back onto the regular Longs Peak trail just below the Boulderfield. A herd of 30 to 40 elk was happily enjoying the sunshine and the grass. A few calves still had their spots and were hidden among the rocks.

Wildflowers

No - I will never tire of wildflowers.

Sunset brilliance

The mountains don't always provide the colorful sunsets that you get at the coast because the air is so dry, there is nothing to reflect the last rays of the sun. But tonight was different with spectacular cloud formations over the mountains lighting up the sky.