Loch Vale

It started snowing on Friday evening and didn't stop until Sunday morning. That meant that we spent the day inside on Saturday and went to find some fresh powder on Sunday. We headed into Rocky Mountain National Park for our first snowshoe of the season. We decided to do a challenging hike for where we are in our fitness and hiked to The Loch, a 6-mile round trip hike with about 1,400 feet of elevation gain. Normally, this wouldn't be so bad, but the fresh snow made it a little more challenging and pushed us to our limits. But despite the pain, groaning, and complaining (mostly from Katie), we made it to a very windy alpine lake where I took a few photos and we turned around to find a calmer spot for lunch.

This was a chilly hike. Luckily the wind wasn't constantly blowing, but each gust chilled us a little more each time. By the time we stopped for lunch, we were both ready to be warmer and wearing all the clothes we brought with us. But that's all part of the adventure, being cold together just hoping for a perfect hike where you can sit on a calm frozen lake in the middle of winter wearing a tee shirt. This wasn't that hike, but you can't expect to find the perfect hike without continually trying. This year has been windy in general (causing severe avalanche conditions), so I'm not sure if we will find a peaceful winter lake this year, but that won't stop us from trying.

Even though it wasn't snowing in the park and wasn't that windy (except at the lake), the visibility was terrible. It got a little better in the afternoon, but it was a bummer that the mountain views weren't clear. Hopefully we can get a good crisp winter mountain view soon.