The Loch is a jewel of a mountain lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. I visited with my parents during the summer of 2013. Coming from the flat Midwest, any glimpse of mountains is truly special. My first sight of mountains was in Wyoming, but the landscapes of Colorado seemed so much more lush and colorful. This inspired the bright bursts of purple, blue, green and orange in my painted world.
The Loch, also known as Loch Vale, lies at mile 2.8 of a longer path that leads eventually to Sky Pond and Andrew’s Glacier. We started the hike on a bright, sunny day. Soon, the thundering roar of photogenic Alberta falls met our ears.
The trail branches off to several other alpine lakes, which I will have to see on my next trip. Today we were focused on making it all the way to Sky Pond and back, a round trip of ten miles and quite a rigorous trek for us Midwesterners. Not used to the altitude, I was already out of breath by the time we reached Alberta Falls. But, the beauty of the landscape distracted me from my fatigue. We walked along ridges that looked down into canyons of rushing streams, got to climb on numerous large rocks, and simply enjoyed the perfect weather we had for this hike. Soon, we found ourselves at Loch Vale.
If you look very, very closely at the above photo of the lake, you can see a distant waterfall up in the mountains. That waterfall was our next destination, and we had to climb up, up, up to get there. Supposedly the waterfall was only a mile away, but as I announced to my parents, “a mile straight up is a lot different than a flat one.”
Eventually we huffed and puffed our way to the base of Timberline Falls, which gave us a bird’s eye view of the Loch.
The hike then had us climb up the side of the waterfall, which seemed treacherous. We climbed using all four limbs, trying to grasp onto ledges that weren’t made of loose rock and that didn’t have water spewing over them. We made it up alright, but every time my foot slipped my heart almost leaped out of my chest.
At the top of the waterfall was a magical alpine lake called the Lake of Glass.
The next part of the hike led us around the Lake of Glass and up to our final destination, Sky Pond. We walked through a mountain meadow of green grasses strewn with giant boulders. It felt like we were hiking though a painting.
And finally, we arrived at Sky Pond, a windy, secluded lake located high above the tree line. We were extremely proud of ourselves for completing such a challenging hike! It was a glorious day. I hope my painting reminds you of your trip to Rocky Mountain National Park as well!
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