Return to Hanging Lake

A few weeks ago I was talking to some good friends, complaining that the last few months had been very boring indeed.  Then this past week happened.  I took some time off work, my parents came to visit me, I had a birthday, a new niece was born, and my grandpa passed away.   Some of these deserve their own posts, but today I’m going to blog about the one event of all of these that I have pictures for.  Unfortunately, it’s one of the least significant events of the week.  On the plus side, it’s also one of the prettiest.

When I moved to Colorado almost three years ago (!) I enrolled in a hiking class offered by the college I work for.  It was free since I’m an employee, and it was a great way to learn about my new surroundings.  One of the hikes we went on is one of the most famous trails in Colorado: Hanging Lake.  Our hike that day was rushed because the twilight was upon us, so we basically booked it up the trail, got to the top, shouted “we made it!” and headed back down before we lost the light.  Ever since then I’ve wanted to make the hike again in a less rushed setting.  This week, that’s exactly what I did.

The Hanging Lake trail is only 1.2 miles long.  However, most of that climb is straight up.  It’s basically like you’re climbing a bunch of stairs.  The trail goes along a creek, and since it’s mostly uphill and it’s time for the winter runoff, this means that the creek is basically a series of small waterfalls.  Beautiful!

All that stair climbing may be hard, but it’s definitely worth it.  Here’s the view at the top.

You are technically not allowed in the water, but that didn’t keep me from trying to get close to it.  A nice man offered his wife as a photographer so I could get proof that I really was there.

The wildlife was also obliging.

After hanging out at Hanging Lake for a while and just soaking in my surroundings, I continued up the trail to get to the top of the falls.  Here’s a view from the top.

And here’s the reason why you make the extra trip.  The water source of Hanging Lake.  Spouting Rock:

Trying to take your own picture underneath a waterfall is kind of hard to do.  Here’s my best effort.  Hey, take the earphones out of your ears for the picture, silly!

Feeling a sense of completion for having finally explored Hanging Lake, I headed back down the trail.  About halfway down I saw three people I had passed on my way up the trail.  While I was wondering what was taking them so long to get up the mountain, one of them started shouting at me.  “Mormon!  Mormon!”  I was confused.  How did he know?  I took the earphones out of my ears as I got closer, and then I understood what he was saying: Marmot.