Must Do, Must See--Hanging Lake!

 

Just can’t get away from Glenwood Canyon until the must do must see hike to Hanging Lake, a national natural monument.  Aron, Robyn, Ben, Elaine, Tracey and I trekked up Deadhorse Creek Canyon to Hanging Lake, a beautiful turquoise travertine lake high above Glenwood Canyon. A short (1.2 miles one way) but strenuous (elevation gain of 1,064 beginning at 6,387 feet) hike that amazingly passes through millions of years of geologic history—“Precambrian metamorphic greenstone, schist and feldspar followed by layers of sedimentary sandstones deposited during a period of ancient seas” so reports the USDA.
 


Judy, Robyn, Aron, Tracey, Elaine, Ben

 

The rocky traversing trail has stairs carved into the canyon face rock and ends at a boardwalk around Hanging Lake which is fed by Bridal Veil Falls.

 

 

And just before the boardwalk a short trail meanders to Spouting Rock where the crystal clear mountain water passes through the limestone and drains from a cliff creating a great place to cool off with a mountain shower!

 

Hanging Lake’s national natural monument designation was given by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar in 2011 to encourage preservation and enhance scientific understanding of this rare wetland ecosystem with falls, hanging gardens and travertine deposits. 

 

 

 

Below is a short video (my apologies, not a videographer) of  the beautiful pristine Hanging Lake.

 

If you haven't had enough of Hanging Lake, click here and enjoy more pictures of the hike! 
 

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.

                                                             -- John Ruskin --