Sky Pond is such a great name for this high mountain alpine lake because it feels so close the bright blue heavens! This was one of our big hikes for summer at just under ten miles. We left the trailhead at 7:30AM and the first, of many, beautiful things we saw were two young elk grazing along the side of trail. Passing by Alberta Falls, an old friend, we passed by those same raspberry bushes that were in flower a couple of weeks ago and we had to stop and enjoy a few sweet juicy treats!

The first lake we came to on this trail was The Loch and several fishers were already hard at work in this lovely and long lake. Continuing along our path to Sky Pond, we hiked by so many waterfalls, clumps of columbine, chiming bells, asters, wild onion, penstamon, bottle brush, and so many other wild flowers.

Climbing on and up so many rock steps, we came to a waterfall and had to scramble up the side of it to Lake of Glass hanging there at the top of the falls. It was dicey and wet, making rocks slippery…but I knew coming back down would be a challenge for my strong sense of vertigo. Lake of Glass was breathtaking.

We continued for another half mile up to Sky Pond. It sits just below Taylor Glacier. The wind was cold, the view breathtaking, and the peanut butter sandwich delicious. We don’t generally tarry long at our destination, but we explored around this mountain gem for a while before trekking back down and into Estes Park where we just had to have some ice-cream. A wonderful day.