After lunch near the Alluvial Fan, we headed for a hike around nearby Bear Lake.
Last year we quickly hiked around Bear Lake at 9449’, then up in elevation to a Nymph Lake at 9698’, then higher in elevation to Dream Lake at 9905’, then higher in elevation to Emerald Lake at 10,11’ which beautifully sat underneath an alpine peak with a glacier and waterfall.
Nature Booklet Tour
With rain showers looming, (and new hikes to high elevations on sunnier days) we spent the afternoon walking around Bear Lake while exploring with a field trip booklet I had purchased the other day at the park ranger book shop.
The above header is of beautiful Bear Lake with Hallett’s Peak at 12,720′ elevation, in the background…
My kids learned to identify evidence of beavers having gnawed on tree trunks, as can be seen below…
The highest peak on the left is Long’s Peak, the only 14er in the park. The jagged peaks to the right are the Keyboard of the Winds, at 13,307’, which as the wind blows through the air sounds like musical notes.
See that tree trunk, bent near the bottom? That is a snow knee which is formed by heavy snow pushing against the trunk.
There were lots of flowers new to us, but quite familiar was this lovely Indian Paintbrush.
We loved all the Stellar Jay sightings in the park:
Chipmunk or Ground Squirrel
During lunch when we were nagged by chipmunks for food (which we do not give them, park rules to keep them healthy), my son insisted they were ground squirrels.
Despite his insistence we equally insisted they were chipmunks, which caused him to pull out all those wildlife identification books I had purchased. 😉
Chipmunks are smaller and have stripes on the cheeks, whereas ground squirrels have a white circle around the eye.
Apologizing to my son who was gleefully correct, I am happy to announce this is a ground squirrel!
My daughter got this one to stand up by gently holding her hand above his head and slowly spreading her fingers out.
My son is the professor, while my daughter is the animal trainer!
