Who could ask for a more beautiful day! Here is Hallett’s Peak from the Bear Lake parking lot. Elevation 9475’.
We were going to try a new hiking trail to some waterfalls and beyond. How high would we go? With a day this great, depending on the ease of the trails, we expected to see many lovely views.
En route to Alberta Falls, we crisscrossed Chaos Creek several times. Loving all the rushing water views, I couldn’t stop taking pictures.
Ooooh, might we possibly break tree line, today? In RMNP that can happen anywhere between 11,000-11,500’.
After a million more pictures, this time of Glacier Creek along which we hiked, is this beaver dam! Don’t see those very often in San Antonio!
We finally arrived at the thundering Alberta Falls, which has a 30 feet crash of water at an elevation of 9675’.
We decided to follow the trail taking us further up in elevation.
I felt as though we could almost touch Hallett Peak around the next bend.
As we rose in elevation we were soon looking DOWN at Glacier Creek!
Then we were looking DOWN at the road to Bear Lake, the parking lot, and our van.
We seemed so close to the alpine peaks…
We reached Lake Haiyaha, elevation 10,240’, which lies underneath the summit of Hallett’s Peak. You can see the Tyndall Glacier in the crevice.
Then we could see Long’s Peak (highest summit to the left, the only 14er in the park) and Keyboard of the Winds (jagged peaks) to the right. It’s said that you can hear a musical sound as the wind rushes through the peaks of the keyboard.
Wow! Now we were looking DOWN at the lakes we hiked to last summer…Dream Lake is at the top and Nymph Lake below.
About this area we met a hiker from the Northeast with a GPS who told us we were at around 11,000’. (That’s the header photo.)
As we began our descent, I’m certain I heard the musical notes of the Keyboard of the Winds!
As sad as I was to be hiking down in elevation, I was glad of the gorgeous views!
After a picnic lunch by the roaring Glacier Creek, we stopped by the visitor center where I bought more books about our hike. Wow! We hiked nearly 7 miles in 5 hours! What a beautiful day to enjoy God’s handiwork!
