EMERALD LAKE

 

 

On our first full free day in Colorado, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We started our morning with the free breakfast at the hotel, which was terrible.  The coffee was so bad, we stopped at the Starbucks across the street on our way out.

 

We had stopped at the REI in Boulder the previous evening and rented snowshoes.  Two pairs cost us a total of $50 for two full days, which was pretty reasonable.  We also got some updated info on road and trail conditions, which was helpful.

 

We drove up through Estes Park and stopped at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.  The weather forecast looked good – partly cloudy with temperatures in the upper 20’s.  The actual weather turned out to be worse.  The peaks were lost in the clouds when we arrived, and they stayed there until early afternoon.  The wind was really howling, too.  Fortunately, most of our hiking was in the woods, where we were sheltered.

 

We talked with a ranger at the Visitors Center.  Avalanche danger was pretty high, and they were not recommending any high elevation hikes.  I asked about Black Lake, but he said that the canyon upstream from Mills Lake was too dangerous.  Likewise, he didn’t recommend hiking beyond The Loch to Sky Pond.  I had also considered Flattop Mountain, but the high winds ruled that out.  Basically, we only had a couple of options – Mills Lake and The Loch, or Emerald Lake. 

 

I had actually hiked to Mills Lake and The Loch in March of 2007.  I wasn’t opposed to doing it again, but I was little more inclined to try something new.  Emerald Lake is an extremely popular hike in the summer, and one that we probably would never do because of the crowds.  Emerald Lake is also a little easier.  We decided to do that one first.  If we had extra time, we’d hit Mills Lake that afternoon.

 

We parked at the Bear Lake parking area, loaded our packs, and strapped the snowshoes on.  We stopped at Bear Lake first.  The wind was brutal there, with lots of blowing snow.  We decided to try stopping there again on the way back.

 

We followed the well packed trail gradually uphill through a beautiful, snowy forest.  We stopped at Nymph Lake and put on our snowshoes.  They weren’t really necessary on the well-packed trail, but stepping off of it meant plunging into deep snow.  Since we had them, we decided that we might as well use them. 

 

We walked right across frozen Nymph Lake, which looked more like a small meadow.  We found the trail on the far side.  We followed it, lost it, backtracked, and the then regained it.  A bit farther we reached the base of a short but steep climb.  That was a little challenging with the snowshoes on.  At the top we followed an open ridge to the foot of Dream Lake.  The wind was brutal here, and we considered turning back.  We soldiered on though, putting our heads down and marching into the wind.  The woods at the far end of the lake provided a break from the wind.

 

We followed the packed trail up through the woods.  A few minutes later, we reached the base of a steep climb.  We struggled up that, at one point using a dead tree to pull ourselves up.  That led to an even steeper climb.  We watched another couple struggle to get up it.  Christy tried it, slipped, fell, and slid back down to the bottom.  I attempted to make a switchback by breaking a new trail off to the side, but that didn’t really work, either.

 

We were almost there, but the peaks were still lost in the clouds, and we didn’t expect to see much.  We decided to head back.  Maybe we would still have time for Mills Lake or something else.

 

We stopped in the woods shortly before Dream Lake and ate a quick lunch.  While we were eating, the couple we had seen earlier passed by.  They stopped, and provided some interesting news.  The trail we had followed was wrong.  Apparently, whoever had broken the trail after the last snowstorm had gone the wrong way, and every subsequent hiker had followed their tracks.  That route ended at some cliffs on the hillside above Emerald Lake, with no way to proceed farther.  However, this guy told me that four hikers were in the process of breaking the trail along the correct route to Emerald Lake.  That got my attention.  I hated giving up, and apparently the correct route was only a few minutes back up the trail. 

 

I suggested giving it another try, but Christy was finished with it.  She was ok with me doing it without her though.  She started back towards the car while I headed the other way.

 

I found the new trail right at the base of the first steep climb.  I followed the new tracks, which meandered through the woods on an easy course.  Before long, I was able to scramble up onto a boulder overlooking the lake.  Incredibly, the clouds were beginning to break up!  I could see the frozen, snow covered lake, circled by rugged, snow-covered peaks. 

 

I continued down to the trail to the edge of the lake.  Conditions continued to improve, and blue sky even made an appearance!  It was a gorgeous spot, and I was thrilled that I had made the second attempt to get here.  It was a bittersweet moment though.  I wished that I had been able to talk Christy into coming with me. 

 

I took many, many photos before heading back.  The scenery on the way out was fantastic.  Dream Lake offered views that rivaled Emerald Lake.  The ridge below Dream Lake granted a lovely view of big peaks to the south, too.

 

Christy was waiting in the car when I returned.  It was 4pm, which meant that we didn’t really have time for anything else.  We did stop at Sprague Lake, but that wasn’t very exciting. 

 

We drove back to Boulder and stopped at the Boulder Roadhouse Depot for dinner for the second time that week.  The first time, Christy got beef rib enchiladas, and I had fish tacos.  This time she got a burger and I had a pizza.  That restaurant was one of our favorites from the trip.




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