sapblatt
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Colorado Day Three – June 8, 2007
One day left – oh, what to do? I toyed with the idea of the Twin Sisters, but with yesterdays storm leaving 3-5 inches above 9000’, and my stellar adaptation to high altitude made me feeling like doing something just as scenic without the elevation gain. In order to beat the throngs of traffic I did my usual early start and was on the trail to Alberta Falls by 6:30am. This is arguably the most popular trail in the park – it is a pretty mellow .8 mile walk into the spectacular falls. By leaving early I was not only able to have the falls to myself for thirty minutes I also had the pleasure of seeing a mule deer at about 15 yards before it saw me – he was running by the time I snapped the picture! The lack of oxygen still bothered me on any uphills, but not as bad as it did on Wednesday. My advice – start with something easy and hydrate like there is no tomorrow. For all my griping I did quite well with it – it is just tough to catch your breath. I had no headaches – my worst side effect of the entire trip is that I have not slept all that well. I am typing this in the airport and am having a hard time staying awake awaiting my 11:35pm redeye home to Boston.
Next stop on my tourist morning is the Bear Lake area – I was hoping to do five lakes – Bear, Nymph, Dream, Emerald and Haiyaha – but the rangers told me that the route to Haiyaha still had knee to waste high drifts and was post hole city – I altered my plans. Bear Lake is right at the visitor center and about half of the trail is handicap accessible – a lot of it had snow on it after yesterday’s snow fall. I did the loop – it is truly amazing. Crystal clear water, great mountain scenery.
The trail continued upwards towards the other three lakes – Nymph was fairly quick and easy to get to, and the snow only really started to appear as I approached Dream Lake. The views of Hallet and Flattop Mountain seem to improve with each step. The views up towards Dream have very cool views of Longs Peak that show it’s teeth along the ridge. At Dream Lake the wind and temperature seemed to go downhill – very cold and very high winds. I took a few photos and added a fleece jacket and hat. Of course minutes later, I was on snow, protected and in the sun – HOT! The ground cover on the way to Emerald was mostly covered with snow and ice (9am) – an hour or so later on the way back it seems as if a lot of it melted. A few tricky spots were avoided – the worse of it was where logs had a thin film of ice on them.
Upon arriving at Emerald I was really taken aback. The lake is pretty small at the opposite side rise Flattop and Hallet Mountains – rising about 3000 feet above the lake. On the slope and from the saddle is the Tyndall Glacier – I witnessed a guy skiing it – a few pics came out OK. I talked to him later and he seemed like it was no big deal – it was plenty of a big deal to me. The hike back got me to parking lot around noon and I headed over to see the Alluvial Fan, which is a gigantic washout from a high dam failure in 1982 – six were killed as 29 million gallons of water came crashing down into Aspenglen and Estes Park. One more stop at Sheep’s Lake to watch the animals and it is time to get ready to go home…I miss everyone, but I really love it hear – I cannot wait to come back.
PICTURES – usual disclaimers apply – most animal shots are mediocre at best – there are some nice flora shots for Audrey (still working on getting those to be more consistent.) I plan on putting together an album of the best of this trip soon – there are way too many pictures! I took 493 pics and around 6 videos!!
EARLY MORNING – ALBERTA FALLS
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN5Q¬ag=1
BEAR, NYMPH, DREAM AND EMERALD LAKES
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN5y¬ag=1
ALLUVIAL FAN AND SHEEP’S LAKE
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN6c¬ag=1
One day left – oh, what to do? I toyed with the idea of the Twin Sisters, but with yesterdays storm leaving 3-5 inches above 9000’, and my stellar adaptation to high altitude made me feeling like doing something just as scenic without the elevation gain. In order to beat the throngs of traffic I did my usual early start and was on the trail to Alberta Falls by 6:30am. This is arguably the most popular trail in the park – it is a pretty mellow .8 mile walk into the spectacular falls. By leaving early I was not only able to have the falls to myself for thirty minutes I also had the pleasure of seeing a mule deer at about 15 yards before it saw me – he was running by the time I snapped the picture! The lack of oxygen still bothered me on any uphills, but not as bad as it did on Wednesday. My advice – start with something easy and hydrate like there is no tomorrow. For all my griping I did quite well with it – it is just tough to catch your breath. I had no headaches – my worst side effect of the entire trip is that I have not slept all that well. I am typing this in the airport and am having a hard time staying awake awaiting my 11:35pm redeye home to Boston.
Next stop on my tourist morning is the Bear Lake area – I was hoping to do five lakes – Bear, Nymph, Dream, Emerald and Haiyaha – but the rangers told me that the route to Haiyaha still had knee to waste high drifts and was post hole city – I altered my plans. Bear Lake is right at the visitor center and about half of the trail is handicap accessible – a lot of it had snow on it after yesterday’s snow fall. I did the loop – it is truly amazing. Crystal clear water, great mountain scenery.
The trail continued upwards towards the other three lakes – Nymph was fairly quick and easy to get to, and the snow only really started to appear as I approached Dream Lake. The views of Hallet and Flattop Mountain seem to improve with each step. The views up towards Dream have very cool views of Longs Peak that show it’s teeth along the ridge. At Dream Lake the wind and temperature seemed to go downhill – very cold and very high winds. I took a few photos and added a fleece jacket and hat. Of course minutes later, I was on snow, protected and in the sun – HOT! The ground cover on the way to Emerald was mostly covered with snow and ice (9am) – an hour or so later on the way back it seems as if a lot of it melted. A few tricky spots were avoided – the worse of it was where logs had a thin film of ice on them.
Upon arriving at Emerald I was really taken aback. The lake is pretty small at the opposite side rise Flattop and Hallet Mountains – rising about 3000 feet above the lake. On the slope and from the saddle is the Tyndall Glacier – I witnessed a guy skiing it – a few pics came out OK. I talked to him later and he seemed like it was no big deal – it was plenty of a big deal to me. The hike back got me to parking lot around noon and I headed over to see the Alluvial Fan, which is a gigantic washout from a high dam failure in 1982 – six were killed as 29 million gallons of water came crashing down into Aspenglen and Estes Park. One more stop at Sheep’s Lake to watch the animals and it is time to get ready to go home…I miss everyone, but I really love it hear – I cannot wait to come back.
PICTURES – usual disclaimers apply – most animal shots are mediocre at best – there are some nice flora shots for Audrey (still working on getting those to be more consistent.) I plan on putting together an album of the best of this trip soon – there are way too many pictures! I took 493 pics and around 6 videos!!
EARLY MORNING – ALBERTA FALLS
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN5Q¬ag=1
BEAR, NYMPH, DREAM AND EMERALD LAKES
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN5y¬ag=1
ALLUVIAL FAN AND SHEEP’S LAKE
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CauGbVozaN6c¬ag=1
