Glacier Gorge

Last year, I hiked around Bear Lake, and then hiked up the trail to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, all the way to Emerald Lake at the foot of Hallett Peak. For me, that is an all-day hike into the wilderness, and very enjoyable. I took some fantastic photos last year, and posted them on my blog. These four lakes are known as the "post card lakes" -- because practically every post card of a Rocky Mountains National Park lake shows a scene featuring one of those four lakes. [Click HERE to go to last year's blog entry with pictures of the post-card lakes.] I toyed with the idea of spending a day hiking up to those lakes again this year. I stopped at the Bear Lake ranger station to check on the trail conditions, and overheard the ranger talking to a group of 20-something hikers, all decked out in their mail-order hiking gear. "If you're looking for solitude, avoid the post-card lakes. I'd recommend Glacier Gorge, up to Mills Lake, or even further up -- to Jewel Lake. Those lakes can be prettier than the post-card lakes. The Glacier Gorge trail is twice as long as the trail to Emerald Lake, so there aren't as many people on it. It takes four hours for a round-trip to Jewel Lake and back." The young physically-fit hikers consulted with each other, then announced that they weren't interested in the longer hike to Jewel, they'd just stick with the more popular (and crowded) trail to Emerald. Aha, I thought to myself. Solitude! Eureka. I squeezed that four-hour Glacier Gorge hike into just over seven hours, taking it slow and easy, resting often, and taking tons of pictures. The scenery up here is indeed way better than the scenery to the post-card lakes. This shot below is about halfway up the gorge. The trail starts out at just below 9000 feet above sea level, which is where a lot of people start really feeling the effects of the altitude. It goes way, way up. The two photos below were taken on the approach to Mills Lake, darn close to the tree line which is around 11,000 feet in elevation.

Above I am standing in front of Mills Lake. The air is thin, and it's a long walk up. But definitely worth it.