Beautiful mountain lakes

Yep, this is again about the lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park. The previous story you can find here - Rocky Mountain National Park lakes

Actually, this is the previous story, because it happened a few years earlier ;) But the lakes are the same, so the order is not that important, is it? Also other time we were in the Rockies late in Fall (just before first snow) and this time in the middle of the Summer, which makes everything even brighter and... summery I guess...

This time we started from the beginning and walked a loop around Bear Lake. Isn't it a beautiful body of water hidden high in the mountains?

The water wasn't still and reflections weren't perfect... but it still was a pleasure to stroll lazily along the narrow trail and peek through the bushes and tree branches, to see the water, bright sky and the mountain peaks rising in the background.

Next stop we made at Nymph Lake. Overgrown with water lilies, this lake looked just incredible. And no surprise, most of the crowd stopped here and never made any further. And... honestly... I can understand them ;)

Dream Lake met us with gray-ish sky and looked tough. In fact, it always looks this way. Bear and Nymph lakes are located at the lower elevation and look more friendly, but Dream Lake is different. Surrounded mostly with pines with clear but gray and cold water it brings a different impression. It's like preparing you for the end of the journey, where another lake is waiting for you...

The trail was running along the small creek. Surrounded by trees-on-the-rock, twisted trees and dried our trees. The paradise for a photographer hunting for an exotc images ;)

And... finally... Emerald Lake. At the end of the trail and squeezed between rogue and unfriendly rocks and cliffs... Fed with small waterfalls and snow patches still not melted in mid July... A real gem. You can probably get there when the sun is shining and it is warm... but both times we were there the sky grayed out above this place and it was cold. Cold even during the toasty Summer day...

 

So we had our lunch there, sitting on the rough rocks and returned back to the car and the sun was back and heat returned and everything looked different when we climbed down from the harsh and rugged location, where the water is green but always cold...

Pictures were taken on July 18, 2010.