Lake Haiyaha
Since last weekend's hike was a little bit of a bummer, we planned to go into Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend since hikes in Rocky never disappoint. But the only problem is that we've done just about all of them, well at least the ones that we can physically get to in the winter. I've wanted to hike to Lake Haiyaha again since the June 2022 rockslide that changed the color of the lake. Of course, since it's winter, I wasn't expecting to see much of the color since it's all frozen over, but the colors were still spectacular and well worth the grueling 6-mile hike. We didn't get very much of the green color that the lake had in the summer, but it was a gorgeous crisp blue that was more brilliant than ice we've seen at other alpine lakes.
We decided to make the hike longer than the 4-mile out and back as we did in early 2022. Instead, we made it a loop starting from the Bear Lake parking lot to Glacier Gorge, turning before branching off to the Loch to get up to Lake Haiyaha, then back down to Dream Lake, followed by Numph Lake, and finally ending our loop back at the Bear Lake parking lot. The hike started out on easy terrain with well-packed down snow since the Glacier Gorge trail is quite popular. But it was apparent that this particular loop isn't popular since the trail was nonexistent between The fork to the Loch and Lake Haiyaha. For that mile of the trail, we were completely on our own breaking trail. Equipped with COTrex on Katie's phone, we made it without wandering too far from the trail (but the map is quite funny to look at because of us squiggling back and forth around the trail in a few spots). Breaking trail isn't something I ever expected to do in Rocky Mountain National Park since it's such a popular place. But it was great to be on our own and away from all the people during that mile, even if it was extremely strenuous. By the time we were hiking back from Dream Lake, there were people everywhere you looked since that's the number one most popular trail in Rocky. That amount of people ruin the hiking experience, but we didn't care since we were physically and mentally done with the hike by that point and just trying to make it back to the car.




Smiling for the Views
Once we started getting good views on the Glacier Gorge trail we knew that this would be a good hike.
Otis Peak
The hike through Glacier Gorge gives spectacular views of Otis Peak. It was windy on the hike which obscures some of the mountain peaks in the distance.
Sunny
The morning was sunny and unusually warm for Rocky Mountain National Park this time of year. But the wind made it feel like a normal January hike.
Spine Shadow
The tree casts a spine-like shadow on the perfect blanket of snow.
Perfect Blanket
The wind-blown snow creates a perfect untouched blanket of snow on the ground. It was untouched until we hiked through it, at least...
Waves of Snow
Ice Crash
The areas that there are rocks under the water create these ice volcanoes. It's such a weird thing to see but all the alpine lakes in Rocky have these same types of features on them.
Piles of Ice
Lake Haiyaha had many snow volcanoes on the surface caused from the plates of the ice colliding with rucks under the surface of the water.
Clear
There were pieces of clear ice, one of which I broke off. It broke and splintered like glass, and I'm sure it's as sharp as ice.
Genuine Smile
I have a hard time getting Katie to give me a genuine smile when posing, but today it came naturally. With such rewarding views at the lake she couldn't help but smile.
Thick
I found a piece of ice cracked and raised up. The ice is much thicker than what's shown here and very stable. The ice was extremely slick. Neither Katie nor I fell, but I did almost tumble a few times because of it.
Lunch Spot
The lake was extremely windy so we hiked back into the trees to eat our lunch. One if my Christmas presents from Katie this year was a light-weight pack able blanket for us to be able to eat lunch in the snowy mountains. The blanket worked great as we had a wintry picnic consisting of hot burritos and some peppermint tea.
Glacier Gorge
On our way back we got fantastic views of Glacier Gorge. We were in that area last month hiking Black Lake.
Nymph and Bear Lake
On the hike back form Lake Haiyaha there are several open views, one of which gets you a view of Nymph Lake (the closer one) and Bear Lake. The last time we were hiking in this area I got a similar shot from almost the same location.