In the mid-nineties, when I first began hiking, one of my first "big" ones in
Rocky Mountain National Park was the ten mile hike up to Black Lake, in Glacier Gorge.
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| Click this map or any picture to see a larger image |
I did the hike in June, 1996 which is still pretty early to be above 9,000 ft, as there was plenty of snow on the trail. I call hikes like this "wet hikes" as there is much in the way of water along the way: Glacier Creek, Alberta Falls, Mills Lake, Jewel Lake, Glacier Creek, and of course Black Lake.
The first time I did the hike I was blown away by the views about 4 miles in -- The view of Stone Man Pass, McHenrys Peak, and Arrowhead were very dramatic. I snapped a pretty decent photo in about 1996 with my last film camera. The picture came out so well that I used it on my business card for Mountain Data Systems. Later that year, I met my friend
Ernie and when I handed him the card, he immediately knew where it was taken. And we've since hiked up into Glacier Gorge together, both in the summer and winter.
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| Just below Black Lake in Glacier Gorge, June 1996 |
Glacier Gorge continues to be my favorite hiking area in Rocky, and I never tire of its beauty. So when I had the chance this month, I left my house for the trailhead about 6:30am. When I rounded the curve near Moraine Park I was greeted with ground fog with morning light on Longs Peak.
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| Longs Peak, above Moraine Park |
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| The Glacier Gorge trailhead |
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| Alberta Falls |
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| On the trail past Alberta Falls. Thatchtop Mountain at left |
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| Along the trail before Mills Lake |
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| Mills Lake, with Longs Peak and the spires called Keyboard of the Winds (taken on the way down) |
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| Along Glacier Creek near the Shelf Creek drainage |
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| iPhone shot similar to my business card image from 1996 |
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| Stone Pass upper left, Ribbon Falls, McHenrys Peak and Arrowhead |
I lingered here at Ribbon Falls, taking various shots of the falls with McHenrys in the background.
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| Ribbon Falls with McHenrys and Arrowhead |
While I was shooting here, another hiker showed up, so we stopped to chat. He introduced himself as Hiroki, from Japan, and we took each others pictures here.
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| Me, just below Black Lake. Thanks, Hiroki! :-) |
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| Hiroki in my panorama shot after arriving at Black Lake |
After a short snack break at Black Lake, I started up the drainage climbing up above the lake to a rock we have affectionately named "Mike's Rock" because I've taken so many people up to it.
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| Looking back down to Black Lake on the way up the drainage |
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| "Mike's Rock" at left, straddling the drainage and overlooking Black Lake |
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| Enjoying my lunch |
After a break, and more photography, I wandered around near Blue Lake, but due to time, I didn't visit it this hike.
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| Above the drainage to Black Lake; Longs Peak and Keyboard of the Winds |
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| The view to the North, back up Glacier Gorge |
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| Pano from just below Blue Lake |
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| On the way down: some of the last blooms of Fireweed |
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| A mini-waterfall in the drainage |
Reluctantly, I left Black Lake and headed down, stopping once to filter some water out of Glacier Creek.
I took a slight detour to take in all of Jewel Lake.
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| Jewel Lake, just above Mills Lake |
I took one last break to shoot this small waterfall not far from Alberta Falls.
This hike never fails to amaze and recharge me, but I was tired and happy to get back to my car.
Here's the elevation/speed profile for the hike.
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As you can see, I can easily turn a 6 hr hike into an 9 hr hike :-)
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