Taking The Lake Estes Trail

On Saturday morning I got up early with plans to run.  My hamstrings were still super sore from Pilates and Kinesis and then hiking up to Gem Lake Friday so I decided power walking would be a better option.  It was a chilly morning so the elk were out.  In fact I got charged my a bull shortly into my workout!  Yes I did a sprint away.

Lake Estes was gorgeous with the steam coming off the lake in the sunshine.  I thoroughly enjoyed the 3.75 miles trail.

A Gem Of A Lake

On Friday I headed up to Estes Park.  After a great late lunch at Nepal's Cafe, I headed out on a late afternoon hike to Gem Lake.  It's a easy to moderate hike with pretty good incline including numerous wooded and stone steps on the trail.

Once we got to Gem Lake we were the only ones there.  The 1.8 million year old granite has been formed by wind and chemical erosion.  It's an unusual lake surrounded by interested trees with roots exposed.

Round trip it was 3.4 miles.  It started cooling off quickly as the sun was going down over the mountains so we did a quick jaunt down the the trail.

There are some great views along the way!