RMNP - Five Lakes, a Pond, and a Falls

This was the second of my 'get back to hiking' plan.  I thought that if I could handle this hike without much difficulty, I could get back to hiking the way I was back in July.  The original plan was to hike up to Emerald Lake in RMNP.  I had not been to Emerald in many years and have never been in the summer.  The hike was much shorter than I remember, so I extended the hike into a loop.  I visited Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, Emerald Lake, Lake Haiyaha, and the Loch.  Along the way, I encountered a pond or two and Alberta Falls.

The hike up to Emerald Lake is a busy trail.  Dream Lake is a popular and recommended hike for those who are still acclimating to the elevation of RMNP, so there were many folks from the midwest up there.  Dream and Emerald are lakes along Tyndall Creek which is the outlet of glacier melt from Tyndall Glacier.  I'm not sure what the water history of Nymph lake is.  This area of RMNP is heavily photographed, so I will add mine to that pile of pictures.

Nymph Lake

Dream Lake - I think Dream is the most picturesque of the three lakes

Dream looking to the outlet

Dream from the inlet

Emerald

Emerald outlet

To get to Lake Haiyaha you climb over and around the ridge from Dream Lake to the Chaos Canyon area.  Chaos Canyon is quite different from the Tyndall Glacier Canyon where Dream and Emerald sit.  It is named Chaos for a reason.  The canyon is littered with rocks and boulders that range from the size of a volley ball to the size of a house.  The 'official' trail works its way to the south side of the lake near the outlet.  I chose to do some minor bouldering and climb up and over to get to the north side of the lake.  This was quite a challenge, both in route finding and managing to climb over/around many boulders.

Bushwhack through to the lake

Lake Haiyaha and Chaos Canyon, Hallett Peak is on the right

Now it was time to go to the Loch.  The Loch is a large lake at the end of Glacier Gorge and on Icy Brook.  To get there required that I hike down the mountain from Haiyaha to where Icy Brook joins Glacier Creek.  From this junction you can hike up to the Loch Vale then on to Andrews Tarn and Sky Pond or you can hike to Mills Lake then on up to Black Lake and Frozen Lake on the west slope of Longs Peak.  The Loch is another popular destination.

The Loch and Taylor Glacier

An unnamed Pond along the way

I sat down to have some lunch.  Since the area is popular, the chipmunks (Chip & Dale) have become quite acclimated and aggressive toward people.  So they bothered me during lunch.  They are pretty smart.  Several times while I was paying attention to Chip on the left, Dale would try and sneak up on right or in back.  Ah well, they left hungry and I left irritated with them.

It was time to head back, so I took the trail heavily traveled down the mountain to Alberta Falls, then on to the truck at Bear Lake.  Alberta Falls was running well, but I didn't take any pictures as there were probably 30 or so people also trying to take pictures.

All in all a good day, although short.  I was definitely ready to tackle something bigger next time.

Overall Track Statistics for RMNP - FiveLakeandaFalls,   1235 data points

 Length 8.426 miles  :  Garmin Length 9.398 miles

 Start Elevation - 9687.40 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 10193.08 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 9202.43 feet

 Date of Hike - Sep 09, 2016

 Start Time - 09:24 AM

 End Time - 01:50 PM

 Total Duration -     4:26 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 2021.88 feet

 Total Descent - 2506.86 feet

 Net Ascent - -484.97 feet

 Maximum Grade - 14.52%

 Average Speed -  1.90 mph :  Garmin Average Speed  2.11 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 495.28 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  2.91 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) -  7.89%