Last week Leslie and I went on a hike she’s been talking about for a long time. Sky Pond is an alpine lake destination in the Rocky Mountain National Park with trailheads along Bear Lake Road. What that means is you need to get a coveted timed entry permit waaaayy in advance. Fortunately we were able to get that done on July 1.
Rather than narrating the journey, I will instead mention some highlights and provide a gallery of photos to peruse below.
We got to Glacier Gorge Trailhead at around 6:30am (left the house at about 5am to get there at that time). There were 3 parking spaces left; good thing we only needed one of them. If we didn’t get that, we could have gone on the Bear Lake Trailhead without sacrificing too much extra hiking. It was a beautiful morning. We ate the breakfast we brought in the car and then ventured to the hike.
One of the first points of interest is Alberta Falls. I’ve been there before, and I didn’t even take a picture because there were so many people there. It’s popularity is likely due to the short hike to get there. As we continued on, we had some trail connections to choose from. Unfortunately, I chose a wrong one causing us at least a half mile extra distance.
Once on the correct trail, there were plenty of beautiful features and views to take in. The trickiest part of the hike was going up a waterfall area. I captured a photo of Leslie working her way up this area in one of the pictures below. There were several bodies of water along the way, most notably, (1) The Lock, where I snapped a great photo of a trout; (2) Lake of Glass, more trout, and stunning reflections, and (3) Sky Pond, the beauty expected from a remote alpine lake.
The total hike was about 10 miles round trip. We both did quite well, but acknowledged it was a great workout for the day.
