Yet another early morning today: I drove over to the Glacier Gorge trail head and hiked in to Sky Pond, passing Alberta Falls, the Loch, Timberline Falls, and Lake of Glass on my way. Altogether more than 10 miles of hiking, plus climbing up the falls to get to Lake of Glass and beyond. That was an endeavor. Fun, in a sense, but a little nerve wracking when you're all alone, 5 miles from the nearest road. A little less fun for the trip back down the falls. The rocks are slick, and with a pack on it's a little tricky. The lakes were gorgeous today, especially the Loch. Low morning clouds obscured the mountain tops, but were neat to watch roiling among the peaks. The wind picked up at the Loch, but up at Lake of Glass and Sky Pond it was downright intense. Very cold, and extremely windy, rivaling the winds in the badlands, which is really saying something. My hands were wind chapped by the time I left the area. The water running down the gorge from Sky Pond is aptly named Icy Creek.

The hike up to Sky Pond starts near the road, and is up, up, and more up. Switchbacks, steep steps made of rock slabs. Taylor Glacier lays at the far end of Sky Pond, and is visible from my porch here at the cabin. It's pretty neat to look out this afternoon and see where I was this morning. Knowing how large that glacier is, and seeing it so small from here put a really nice perspective on the area. I'm a geek and I just love that sort of thing; understanding the lay of the land formations, the spatial locations of all the features in the park. Interesting things from today apart from the fantastic landscapes I journeyed through include seeing elk far up near the lakes. I saw females and a calf, but I could smell a bull somewhere nearby. I put my hand on a snow field today. Really interesting shapes on the surface with the melt pattern.

And that's about it for today. My feet are more sore than they have been yet, and many muscle groups are complaining as well. I'm going to reassess my plan for tomorrow, and see if there are some shorter adventures to be had in order to get a day of rest. Maybe a hike of just 5 miles or so.

Sunrise view

Alberta Falls

The Loch

Lake of Glass

The Sharkstooth over Sky Pond

Sky Pond and Taylor Glacier

Sharkstooth and others whose names I can't recall.

View towards Sky Pond from Lake of Glass

Lake of Glass

View of the Loch from Lake of Glass

Timberline Falls

Timberline Falls, the climb route

View from Timberline Falls with snow field

Timberline Falls from below

The Loch, with view of Timberline Falls and the cirque
formed by Taylor Glacier

A little closer view for seeing the falls

The Loch

The trail along Glacier Gorge

Unnamed cascade

View from up high

Alberta Falls again

Another early morning today; I headed out just at dawn for Wild Basin to hike to Ouzel Falls. A moderate hike compared to some, just 5.4 miles today and not nearly as much elevation gain as I've been doing lately. I joined a group of three sisters from Minnesota for the hike in. It was early enough that there were not many people on the trail yet, and Wild Basin is known as the area to go in search of the more elusive wildlife such as bears. A ranger I talked to yesterday did this hike a couple weeks ago and saw moose, bear, and other wildlife. I wasn't keen on running into moose or bear alone, so found some nice hike mates. The journey took us past Copeland Falls, Calypso Cascade, and Ouzel Falls. Copeland is on the St. Vrain Creek, Ouzel Falls is on Ouzel Creek which feeds into the St. Vrain. Calypso is part of an unnamed creek that also feeds the St. Vrain. Plenty of evidence of the flood damage here, besides the fact that the bridge at Ouzel Falls is still out. Crews were working on it today. Also still signs of the Ouzel fire from a couple decades or more ago.

All in all it was a lovely walk, and I didn't see anything larger than a mink, which I only barely saw as it ran over my foot while I was photographing falls. Gave me a good start. The little guys were busy fattening up for winter, and had little fear of us hiking past.

Tonight is my last evening program for the park as Artist-in-Residence. I'm all set to go, and even added some slides of images from my stay at Rocky. It's been a great experience, and I am a little sad to see it winding down. I'll be in the area camping for a few days after my residency ends though, haven't quite had time to see all the areas I want this trip. I've really enjoyed Rocky and the solitude of this experience.

Tomorrow I endeavor to make it to Sky Pond, which includes climbing up some waterfalls on the way. It's a good hike of almost 10 miles, possibly my last long and rigorous hike, we'll see. I'm still contemplating Flattop and perhaps Hallet. Someday I'll get up Hallet, I love that mountain.