“Wow, is this some kind of group!?” a hiker remarked under his breath as we passed by. It was, and a significantly sized one at that! This past Saturday, over fifty participants, organizers, and mentors from IDDS assaulted one of Colorado’s most treasured natural resources: Rocky Mountain National Park. Though archaeological evidence suggests the Park has been visited by Native Americans since at least ten thousand years ago, visitors have only enjoyed its protected status as a national park since 1915. At over 265 thousand acres (1075 sq km), RMNP contains a vast network of trails, lakes, and glaciers – hopefully a memorable experience for our diverse group.
Impromptu jumping jacks?
We began the approach from Bear Lake, which, much to my disappointment, did not deliver the goods. Sort of like “Greenland.”
The path, rarely more than a person wide, wound up a densely wooded slope, crisscrossing streams and other paths along the way. Our intrepid guide Zach Youngerman kept us headed in the right direction.
A very cool split-log bridge along the way.
Our destination : Lake Haiyaha, a hike of 2.2 miles and 800+ feet vertical from our starting point – that’s our group in the reds and oranges in the photo below. Despite our tired legs and sweaty bodies, the lake was still painfully cold! Perhaps the snow just a few hundred feet above should have been a warning…
A well-deserved lunch break.
As the forest thinned in some areas, one amazing feature of these windswept trails are the twisted, gnarled trees who have survived centuries of high-altitude abuse. Due to the consistent direction of winds, some trees would literally spiral ten or more times along their length – see the branch above Steve’s head, below.
Steve and The Tree face off.
After lunch, an intrepid smaller group set off to touch the snow we’d glimpsed in the distance on the way up. The hiking was much tougher above the lake, with the majority of the distance covered scrambling over boulders the size of cars or small homes.
IDDS participants happily skinning their knees.
Victory! What a wonderfully bizarre feeling to sink your hands (and feet, and inevitably face) into a snowdrift on a hot August day. Don’t fear for me – the photo below was staged. They all missed anyway…
Duck!
It was remarkable how many in our group were reminded of their home countries on the hike. Participants from Nepal, Rwanda, Bangladesh, and elsewhere all told me that their countries had similar mountain ranges!
One of the many beautiful Colorado pines.