bicyclingbarefoot: towards Sky Pond

To get to Sky Pond, one much travel past several lakes along the way.

From the Glacier Gorge trailhead, it is a 4.9mile (oneway) hike with an elevation gain of 1,440ft.

The trails winds past the quaking aspen grove, past Alberta Falls, following the same trail that takes one to Mills Lake. This time around the wild raspberries were blooming on the rocky hillsides.

Very tasty, very tart, very juicy.

After the Mills/Loch junction, the trail starts to climb upwards in switchbacks, looking down over Icy Brook (which was no longer icy, although there was plenty of snow before the Loch).

After crossing a snowfield we arrived at the Loch, about 2.8miles from the trailhead. Up until this point, it had been rather cloudy. When we arrived at the lake, the sun decided to bless us with her presence for a short bit.

Loch Vale

The trail winds around the north end of the lake, into wet and marshy sub-alpine forests.

the aptly named Little Pink Elephants are often found in marshy areas in the park.
this was the first decent picture I got of them, although definitely not the first time I saw them.

We ran into a bit more snow as we approached Timberline Falls. To get to Sky Pond you have to climb alongside the falls. Earlier in the season the trek up was quite icy and a bit nerve-racking (or so I hear). Due to the high snow melt, the falls had overflown their normal course and were flowing over the trail, making for a slippery ascent.