Gem Lake
The weather was fantastic this weekend. It was great all week long, which meant that there was no fresh snow to go snowshoeing. Since we knew that we wouldn't find any fresh snow, we decided to not even try to pick something that had snow potential and we stayed at the (relatively) lower altitude in Estes Park. The weather was in the 60's which makes for perfect hiking weather. Not too cold that the hiking can't warm you up and not so hot that you're sweating (although I did sweat a little on this hike).
We got to the trailhead around 11am and at 3.5 miles and 1,000ft elevation gain, the hike took us 2 hours. Since it was mid-day, the sun was in a horrible spot in the sky and washed out a lot of the Western mountain photos of Longs Peak. All things aside, it was a pretty mild hike for our hiking range, but my only complaint was the lighting. I guess that's what happens when you wake up late and slowly get to the trailhead.
3.57 mi
2 hrs
8,821 ft
1,030 ft
Bark
While Katie was tying her shoe I figured I'd take a photo f something. I like the pattern that the bark grows.
Washed Out
Because the sun was just to the left of this photo, the mountain range to the Southwest was pretty washed out. The black and white conversion helped it not be so washed out.
Clinging to the Rock
This was one of the coolest things we saw on this hike. There was a layer of ice that was stuck to the rock, but the interesting part of this was that it was melting from the inside and you could see water droplets captured between the rock and the ice falling down and following the profile of the rock until it was at the ground.
Gem Lake
The lake was pretty non-existent. I know that this lake is pretty shallow, but I was expecting just a little bit more.
Longs Peak
You could see Longs Peak for the majority of the hike. This trail provides excellent views of many of the peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park.
