On this day we hiked to a bunch of lakes. Plus we took a side trip up to see Andrews Glacier, but I have put those photos onto the next
webpage because it seemed like a new trip. The 11.6 miles that I show at the top of this page for our total hiking distance includes the trip we took up
to see Andrew's Glacier.
We started early, of course, eating a cold breakfast in our room and then driving into Rocky Mountain National Park before the sunrise. We
happened up a small herd of elk standing upon the road up to Bear Lake. A young calf was feeding from the mother. A big antlered elk stood nearby, and he started
bugling loudly when I stopped the car to take pictures. Unfortunately, the light was poor at that hour and most of those photos turned out blurry.
We had great weather this day. As you look at all the photographs, you will see blue sky in many of the backgrounds. We were able to visit all of
the lakes on our planned route, so it was perfect conditions.
There were a couple of minor challenges on this hike - to reach the Lake of Glass, we had climb up over boulders. There was a small amount of water
splashing down through the rocks, but fortunately we were mostly able to find dry rocks to grip and for footholds as we pulled ourselves up. On a rainy day, reaching
the Lake of Glass might be a bit risky. The second challenge was reaching Skypond itself. Getting to this lake required another scramble up over boulders, though this
time the route was dry. I didn't see these boulders scrambles mentioned in the trail description, it is only for a few score feet of elevation, so perhaps not
worth mentioning to hardy hikers.
We ate lunch at Skypond. Since it was still early afternoon as we made our way back down the trail, and since the weather looked like it would
remain nice, we took the side route up to the Andrews Tarn.
This is a copy of the official Rocky Mountain National trail map for the Bear Lake region. I highlighted in blue the route we took, first to Alberta Falls
and then to Mills Lake and Jewel, and then up to Loch Vale, Glass Lake and Skypond. Later on this same day we took the side trip up to Andrews Glacier, but that seemed like
another adventure in itself, so I put those photographs on the next webpage.
Notice that on this official park map, the lake below Skypond is called Lake of Glass.
