a return to Wild Basin

The Wild Basin area is located in the southeast corner of the park, about 15miles south of Estes Park; just far enough away to keep many people away. The area is dominated by water - marked by beautiful lakes and waterfalls. By the end of the summer, it was also an area dominated by hungry black bears who grew smart and started breaking into cars. No bears this day, however; just a light breeze, some sunshine, and lots of waterfalls.

From the Wild Basin Trailhead, Copeland Falls is 0.3miles away, Calypso Cascades is 1.8miles in, and Ouzel Falls is 2.7miles and you gain just under 1,000ft in elevation along the way.

Beyond Ouzel Falls lies Ouzel Lake and Thunder Lake - both on my to-do list for next summer =]

The North Saint Vrain Creek, looking west towards Copeland Falls

The lower portion of Copeland Falls

The way the light was hitting the roaring St. Vrain and the surrounding rocks was mesmerizing.

Many trees in the area have this moss-like growth all along their branches.

After following the river someways, you come to Calypso Cascades. Surrounded by trees, the cascade is quite incredible. The falls was named after the Calypso Orchid, which I had seen on my previous visit to Wild Basin; unfortunately, it was a bit late in the season to spot them this time around.

 I had a bit of fun messing around with my camera settings; bear with me here on all the C.C. pictures.

Calypso Cascades

Calypso Cascades

Calypso Cascades

Calypso Cascades

Calypso Cascades

 Cony Creek, which rushes down through Calypso Cascades and into North Saint Vrain Creek, meets up with Ouzel Creek a bit further up the trail.

Water from Ouzel Creek pooling alongside the trail.

Trees. Lots and lots of trees. I know a picture cannot really capture the essence of it all, but I was struck by just how many trees there actually were. 

Downstream along Ouzel Creek, looking up towards Ouzel Falls.

Off-trail a bit, and alongside Ouzel Falls

Happy, and a bit wet.

This is just to the left of the falls themselves. I climbed up here, finding quite a bit of snow (which is barely visible in the upper left).

Ouzel Falls

Fireweed

 One of the best parts of dragging yourself out of bed and getting on the trail real early is that you are likely to have the place to yourself. On the way to Ouzel Falls I ran into two or three couples. By the time I made it to the falls and clambered around for a bit, I had the waterfall to myself. There truly is nothing like it - to have solitude, to have lakes and rivers and whole forests to yourself. 

On the way back to the trailhead I ran into plenty of people (some of which are visible in the picture below).

Asters (or daisies?!)

Marioposa Lily

DeChristopher sentencing

Excuse me while I take a brief break from pictureposting to express my extreme frustration and disappointment of the sentencing handed down to Tim DeChristopher this afternoon.

In April, I posted a video of DeChristopher from Powershift in Washington, D.C.  While the entire conference was incredibly inspiring, hearing DeChristopher speak for all of 8minutes made me feel like I HAD to do something, that WE had to do something if we are to ever change the current destructive and fatal trajectory that our society is honing in on. His words made me feel as though, if we all worked together, we could truly do something to alter our society and start making right, sane decisions. We could stop blowing up mtns in the name of a dirty fuel source. We could stop selling off beautiful tracts of land for oil and gas exploration. We could stand up together, change our civilization, and change it for the better. After hearing him, I realized that if we are to truly see a change, we must fight and we must fight hard. And while this fight may require incredible challenges and an inconvenience in our daily schedules of school, work, and partying, I knew it was a fight that must be fought.

This afternoon, DeChristopher was sentenced to two years of prison a $10,000 fine for "disrupting a federal oil and gas lease auction." Numerous reports and news stories state that several tracts of Utah land were being sold (illegally) by the federal govt for $2/acre. DeChristopher took a stand and bid on several tracts, ultimately raising the final bids much higher and even winning $1.8million worth of oil and gas leases he had no intention of paying for.

Activism of this kind is unheard of these days. This act of civil disobedience has raised awareness to the auctioning off of public land for decimation and environmental degradation, and DeChristopher has inspired millions of people to finally wake up and act to protect our Earth (myself, included). It appears that the judge of the trial is attempting to deter others from committing more acts of non-violent civil disobedience. I truly hope that this ruling only encourages others to take a stand and fight.

Active Beaver Ponds

There must have been 10-15 beavers, including a few small kits, swimming in these ponds just outside of the park. It's a popular spot for locals to visit in the evening; many park visitors have no idea it's even there. 

I watched many small beavers playing together - splashing around and chasing one another - but wasn't able to get any respectable pictures of their interactions, unfortunately.

Bierstadt Lake

After hiking out to Emerald Lake, I returned to circle Bear Lake before catching the trail down to Bierstadt Lake. Geologically speaking the lake is unique - rather than being formed while a glacier receded (as Nymph, Dream, and Emerald did), it is found on top of a lateral moraine. As glaciers grow and carve out valleys, they often push up rocks and dirt alongside and ahead of themselves, creating great hills of debris; these are moraines. The Bierstadt Moraine is nearly 1,000ft tall - starting at Bear Lake (at an elevation of 9,475ft) means an easy hike of mostly downhill. 

East shore of Bierstadt Lake, looking out towards the Continental Divide. Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes lie between Hallett and Flattop (right two peaks).
Also visible are three of the five glaciers still found in the park.
(Click for larger Panorama)

Peeking out at Bierstadt, with Hallett Peak right in the middle

Thatchtop, Taylor, Otis, Hallett, and Flattop

The surprising sandy shores of the eastern part of Bierstadt.

Looking out at Thatchtop while hiking down the lateral moraine. Surrounded by Aspen trees, I imagine this must be really quite gorgeous in Autumn.

Nymph, Dream, and Emerald

Began the morning early by visiting the lakes tucked in the valley carved by Andrews Glacier between Hallett and Flattop Mtn.

Early morning reflect of Hallett and Flattop at Nymph Lake. The water lilies are just started to get in full gear.

Nymph Lake is about a half-mile from the Bear Lake Trailhead.

Continuing on another 0.6 miles lies Dream Lake, just after the junction for Lake Haiyaha.

The lakes are connected by a creek, running over rocks and small, cascading waterfalls.

Hallett and Flattop as seen from Dream Lake

Looking east from Dream Lake

1.8miles from the Trailhead at 10,080ft lies Emerald Lake, which really does have a deep green color in the sunlight, especially noticeable when viewed from the Emerald Lake overlook on the Flattop Trail.

Hallett and Flattop Mtn as seen from Emerald Lake

West-facing panorama from Emerald Lake

Mills Lake and Black Lake

Went out early with Ben, a fellow intern and a fellow Minnesotan, on a number of hikes throughout the summer. Arguably, this may have been my favorite. 

Alberta Falls, especially at midday is throbbing with people, but in the early morning is quite pleasant. The snowmelt this year has been incredible, causing all the rivers and creeks to run real high. Glacier Creek, which  provides the water for Alberta Falls is no exception.

Started our hike at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead; Alberta Falls is a real easy 0.8mile hike in through quaking stands of Aspen and tall Spruce and Fir.

Glacier Creek running through Alberta Falls in the early morning

The walk from Glacier Gorge to Mills Lake is one of my favorite - you get phenomenal views down onto Bear Lake Road and beyond. As the trail continues you look down into the actual gorge where Glacier Creek runs. Wild Raspberries grow in multiple places along the rocky outcroppings.

Mills Lake is 2.7miles from the trailhead; Black Lake is 2.2miles further up the trail.

Looking back south from Mills Lake

Mills Lake, looking towards the cirque where Black Lake lies, surrounded by Longs Peak, Keyboard of the Winds, Pagoda, and McHenry's Peak.

Mills Lake, looking south back towards Hallett and Flattop

Mills Lake

Along the way, we passed many open meadows of green grass and beautiful small flowers.

Glacier Creek. 

Following the creek through the woods, we faced a few small and slick snowfields that had to be crossed to reach our destination. Thankfully, many of the fields were flat and easy to cross, although I lost my camera lens somewhere along the way.

Lower portion of Ribbon Falls and part of the meadow it drains into.
Also visible: the last snowfield that had to be climbed. It was a bit steep and slippery, and I ended up going down on my butt on the way back.

Looking down from atop the last snowfield before Black Lake onto Ribbon Falls. Much of the falls were covered by thick snow; the social path we took is visible in the lower right corner.

Black Lake, surrounded by many mtn peaks, including McHenry's Peak in the center

Precipitation this winter in the park was incredible - in places 200% more than average. As summer brought bright sunshine and warmer temperatures, water began flowing throughout the park.
As we neared Black Lake, all we could hear was the rushing of water all around us; alongside the trail were small seasonal waterfalls. Once we arrived at the lake, we found huge waterfalls flowing into the lake from every direction, many of which are visible here. The surprise of the falls and the solitude made this hike one of my favorites all summer long.

Ben continued on towards Frozen Lake, about a thousand feet above Black; the ice and snow alongside this waterfall convinced me to enjoy some solitude at Black Lake instead.

Waterfall rushing into the eastern side of the lake. Just out of the shot lies the backside of Long's Peak.

Black Lake, as viewed from above the eastern shore.

Black Lake

Black Lake