Sky Pond or Bust

My sister recently moved closer to us. She’s just a few hours drive away, but due to the pandemic we’ve been unable to see each other. Last month she had a week off and planned a camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Dave and I thought this was the perfect way to visit, and do it safely, so we reserved a site at the same campground and spent the weekend with them.

The main activity of the trip was to hike to Sky Pond. We’ve actually done this trail before with my sister a few years back. We all had to be inside the park before 6am since we were unable to obtain an entry reservation – so it was quite an early morning for us! But seeing the sunrise over the mountains was a pretty good consolation prize.

The trail is pretty strenuous – 12 miles roundtrip with an elevation gain of almost 2,000 feet, but luckily there are several stops along the way to rest. The first is The Loch, a subalpine lake framed by several rocky peaks. There was a lone elk wandering by the path.

The trail then began to climb up a series of steep rock stairs, and by steep I mean gaining 200 feet in a tenth of a mile!

We were able to catch our breath at Timberline Falls, which was actually our next obstacle. This part of the trail is basically a 100-foot scramble up the side of the waterfall. It’s quite steep, parts were a little slippery and oh, I’m afraid of heights! But we all (slowly) made it to the top and carried on.

Because it was such a long hike, I didn’t bring my camera – which I instantly regretted the moment I saw Blue Columbines! They are Colorado’s state flower, and I’ve never seen them in the wild!

After the group pried me away from the flowers, we were at Glass Lake. Since it’s above tree-line, it is completely surrounded by craggy rock with patches of small shrubs that somehow survive the harsh weather of the alpine tundra. And the view looking back down the trail is just spectacular, and really shows how high in altitude you are.

A half a mile further was our final destination – Sky Pond! The lake sits at 10,500 feet with the appropriately named Sharkstooth Peak towering overhead. We ate lunch, and stayed awhile just taking in the view… avoiding the fact that we have to hike another 6 miles back down!

We spent the rest of the weekend wandering the park, eating tacos around the picnic table, and catching up on life. This was the first time we’ve seen family in person since last year, so it was nice to have some sort of normalcy during this time.

At the beginning of the trip we heard about a wildfire that started just north of the national park, and was visible from Trail Ridge Road. We pulled over and watched in horror as 12,000 acres of national forest was burning before our eyes. I’m writing this post about a month later, and sadly it is now over 125,000 acres, and threatening several communities. Dave and I are located out in the plains, but are close enough to see it from our neighborhood, and have smelled smoke off and on for the past several weeks. One day it got so bad that there was ash and burnt pine needles flying through the air. Our thoughts are with the firefighters on the front lines braving the heat for all of us.