As Erin has mentioned in earlier posts, I’m spending the month of July participating in an NEH institute in Boulder, Colorado. That means a great deal of sitting Monday through Friday. On Saturdays, however, we go hiking. The institute director characterizes these as “easy, gentle hikes” for those not used to hiking in the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps his description makes sense for native Boulderites. For the rest of us, “easy, gentle hikes” mean aching legs, feet that feel like they’re ready to be made into burger patties, and, most of all, much gasping for what little oxygen is to be found.
The views are glorious, though. Yesterday we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked in the Glacier Gorge area and I managed to take a few pictures in between the more important activities of gasping for air and birdwatching. The many wildflowers — and many vividly coloured — were a striking feature of the hike:
After about three miles and a thousand feet of altitude gain, we reached The Loch:
The same lake looking back after another few hundred feet up and even less oxygen:
The Loch was followed by the Lake of Glass and then, finally, by the Sky Pond:
At this altitude there was still quite a bit of snow around, including some watermelon snow. And, yes, the watermelon snow did have a faint smell of watermelon.
Alan Schmierer