| After crossing the park on Trail Ridge Road we stayed at Estes
Park and decided to go out and walk one of the many trails. This gave us a
chance to go down the Bear Lake road (about 10 miles) to the ranger station
there, which is at 9,475ft. From there we walked a circular trail of about 8
miles rising to 10,200ft. It was very well laid out and signed to support
the thousands of walkers in the area. |  |
 | We had a quick look at
Bear Lake which is small and has a flat paved trail round it (all the parks
we have been to have at least a couple of wheelchair accessible trails),
then headed for Nymph Lake, presumably named for the thousands of water
lilies in it. |
| Then on to Dream Lake which was a few hundred feet higher. The
lakes were so peaceful and clear you could watch the fish swimming around. |  |
 | Most of the valleys are
glacial in origin and you can see this from the rounded rock formations
which head the valleys. Of course it takes millennia to achieve this. |
| And on up a spur trail to Emerald Lake at the head of this
particular valley. The path to here was closed during the week because it
was still undergoing reconstruction. This was being done with logs (flown in
by helicopter) and rocks (broken up the hard way, on site). This was all
taking some time and not surprising given that all tools and equipment had
to be carried in over three miles every day. |  |
 | We retraced our steps
to the main trail and then went round the mountain to the next valley. This
gave us some spectacular views over the many other small lakes in the main
Bear Valley. |
| We carried on, now on a path frequented by far fewer walkers (and
those were mostly French - Americans don't walk). Eventually we reached Lake
Haiyaha. The last bit of path was almost non-existent but the lake when we
got there was truly beautiful. This is the valley head with the
characteristic glacial structure and small glacier at its head. |  |
 | Down below was the lake
itself. It was amazingly quiet. You are also very sheltered here so there
was little wind. This is at 10,200ft. |
| You are getting close to the limits for trees and with the very
rocky ground this tree was all the more remarkable. It obviously would have
quite a story to tell and it must have been there almost forever. |  |
 | There were other
smaller lakes on the way down (via an 'unimproved' track). This one didn't
have a name board - and I think the photo is the right way up. |
 | Besides watching for
the wild flowers, we also keep our eyes open for anything else of interest,
and we spotted these two magnificent specimens of fungi. |
 |
| And as we work our way down, the water does also, creating a
number of small falls along the way. This was part of a series known as
Alberta Falls. Sometimes the falls were made more spectacular by the jumble
of trees which had been carried down when the flow was rather greater than
it is in mid summer. |  |
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