Everyone who visits this national park must have a picture of this lake. It's easy to reach with the bus system, and has a flat hiking trail around it. So we got our Bear Lake pictures just like everyone else.
That means this area is very busy, so we were glad to hit the trail. We headed straight up for a while, and the crowds quickly disappeared. We soon began seeing mountain peaks at eye level.
Notice that we are both smiling, as it is before noon and we are still feeling rested.
Our trail got rocky as we approached Lake Helene, and we are seeing areas where last winter's snow has now made it all the way through the summer.
We often see yellow-bellied marmot in these rocky sections of trails. But today we are treated to see several pikas playing in the rocks.
In the same family as the common rabbit, they seldom have let us get so close or stayed so still for clear pictures.
Maybe that's because they are settling down for their great winter nap among these rocks. We caught this guy carrying a big green leaf twice his size into his den.
We scrambled off the trail for our first detour. This took us to a ridge for unbroken views of the mountains around us. We are surely wandering God's wonders today!
Part of this trail is narrow, hugging the side of the mountain. But once we got to this point, it is all down-hill. We are glad that the ranger told us to make this hike in this direction, as we are meeting people that are working hard going uphill.
By 1:00 we can see our next destination. That is Odessa Lake showing up far below us in the picture below.
It's detour #2, but we took the extra hike down into the valley to get to Odessa Lake.
Because it's cloudy and windy, we decided not to spend too much time here. It's funny how the weather will determine your feelings about a location. Odessa Lake won't go down in our memories as a favorite even though it is a lovely place on a sunny day.
Then we're on the trail again, heading toward our next destination of this hike that is getting longer and longer.
It's after 2:00, so we're due for a long lunch break. We love taking pictures of some of our picturesque meals with a view. With that blue sky and protection from the breeze, we'll remember the clear water of Fern Lake fondly.
A hiker very early in the day told us to take a left turn right after Fern Lake for a short hike to some great views. We found a left turn and started straight up the mountain on what would be a very long detour #3. The trail went up and up and up and . . . It's hard for us to cut our losses and decide that we have wasted too much energy. So we just kept going. all. the. way. to. Spruce Lake.
It was a tiring two mile detour that included scrambling over boulders and lots of elevation gain. Part of this area is closed for the mating territory of the endangered Boreal Frog - but we didn't see any. Someone we talked to later saw a moose at Spruce Lake today - but we didn't see any. So it was a long trail to a mountain lake and we didn't see a soul on the trail. It was a nice secluded place in a very busy national park, but it wasn't worth all that energy for another long detour.
This is a long trail, but it has plenty of scenic views along the way. We've been hiking for about seven hours by the time we came to Fern Falls, and we are both still smiling. That's because no detour was needed to get to the falls.
Our original plan was to hike from the last shuttle stop on the south side route, all the way to where the north side bus would pick us up at the end of the line. But when we checked our map, it would just be a little further to make a detour to Cub Lake and the next bus stop. What we didn't bargain for was that this #4 detour would include a mile of uphill hiking. Why do we keep doing this? The main reason to make the extra effort to go to Cub Lake is that it is a notable moose habitat. Besides, we are getting late in the day when moose like to show up at lakes. But the magic didn't happen tonight--no moose at cub lake.
It's getting late in the day, and Denisa has vowed to take no more detours. But then we see three bull elk across the marshy meadow. Shouldn't we take detour #5?
Of course we do, and we find ourselves in the middle of a stream bed covered over with tall grass. How about soggy feet for the rest of the hike?
But we do get close enough to take some pictures of the bulls. The biggest one started bugling, and then took off at a fast pace to where the action was in the far meadow.
The two younger bulls must know that they don't have a chance in the competitions going on in the meadow right now. So they are content to stay here for a close-up portrait.
We stayed and watched the two young bulls, butting heads and tangling their horns in a good show of testosterone.
We really have to pick up speed now, knowing that the last shuttle bus of the day is only an hour away. We're in big trouble if we miss the last bus, because our car is miles away and we know that there's no way that Denisa can walk that much further. So we did some speed hiking for the rest of the trail. The last shuttle runs at 7:30, and it was already getting close to 6:30. We saw a shuttle bus rounding the corner into the parking lot when we were only 200 yards away, but the 6:30 bus pulled out before we got there. Now we had to wait thirty minutes for the next shuttle! Denisa was so sad that she almost missed the pink sunset that was happening by that time.
The ranger did a great job of recommending this awesome hike that took us beside beautiful lakes with stunning mountain views that could all be seen in just 8.5 miles of hiking. But our foolish detours stretched our hiking day considerably. By the time we got home we clicked off almost 14 miles, with elevation gain of 2,060 feet. No wonder Denisa was so tired! It was a beautiful day wandering God's wonders, but beware of too many detours!
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