Thu, Aug 30 2007 - Eiffel Lake - Slowpokes, Dawdlers & Photographers (View Original Event Details)
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Wow, what a striking day for a hike! We had so much rain & cold over the last week in the Rockies, that finally a warm sunny day appeared for our hike today !!!
Amongst all the tourists’ vans, winnebagos, and cars, we slithered thru the parking lot and headed towards Larch Valley. All our elevation gain was at the beginning of the hike, and we quickly split-up into two groups. My group of 4 met up with a couple from Fort Myers (Florida), who has been here for a week, doing many hikes in the Rockies. Once we got to the Larch Valley split, they went on their way to Sentinel Pass, while our group continued onward to Eiffel Lake. Surprisingly (to me at least), there were many tourists doing this hike – many accents were encountered on the way – as they were all passing us, and some of them really going fast !
The views of Lake Moraine from our hiking path showed incredible blue/aqua water. It looked so stunning that it was hard to believe that it is real !!!! The glaciers were impressive as usual !!! We are so lucky to have this playground in our backyard !!!
I counted 9 peaks along the way ! The 10th must be well hidden from our path (I hope !!) It got very windy once we got near the ridge above the lake. We found a great wall shelter and had lunch in our nook. While at lunch, we had this chipmunk begging for food. It was obviously well fed by its size and had no fear of approaching & climbing on our gear if we didn’t shoo it away !
A nice leisurely stroll back to the trailhead, and ran into lots of fellow hikers !!!
Encounters on the trail: Tourists, tourists and more tourists ! Birds, wildflowers, hanging spider webs, an “U” shape tree (see pics), juicy berries (ask Carole & Lila, our taste testers !), wild mushrooms, and a pesky chipmunk.
Thank you everyone for joining me on my last hike for August !!!
Happy Trails :)
Karen D.