So WAY back in July before I went to Austin,
firedew1 and I went hiking up near Brighton Ski Resort. From there, you can go up to 3 lakes, Mary, Martha and Catherine. According to my research, Brighton trailhead is at about 8700 feet and near as I can tell the final lake (Catherine) is around 10K feet. firedew and I were wondering (and no wonder we were out of breath in places, girl! LOL)
I finally got around to sorting out some pics from the hike. (the folder has only been sitting on my desktop for a month now... LOL)
Great day hike! Lots of fun. There are a ton of hikes like this around here. Definitely a good place to live if you love outdoor activities! :)
First lake was actually Dog Lake (which I really think is a glorified pond, its quite small. LOL) its a short hop off the trail and was worth the side trip as there were moose down there! We were able to get pretty close to them, closer than I'd normally get to moose (they can be rather cantankerous and unpredictable beasts) but we were up on rocks so they couldn't really charge us if they'd wanted to. The bull unfortunately was laying down, we could only see his rack every once in a while, but the cow was up and feeding. :)
Dog Lake:
And the Moose!
On up the trail the first lake is Lake Mary. Very pretty. Great hike but really a lot of uphill. We both got wore out on this hike for sure! LOL
Lake Mary:
and a little friend that visited us while we admired the lake..
On up the trail, and a great shot of Lake Mary and Lake Martha together. Martha is pretty small and pretty close to Mary. Hard to spot. Come to think of it, I don't think we saw her until we were on our way back down. LOL
Lake Martha:
A shot of Martha and Mary together, so you can see how close they are to each other...
Finally, at the top and around 10K feet, Lake Catherine. So nice and serene up here! And we still had cell coverage which I thought was really funny! Normally, when I've been out in the wilderness, loss of cell signal is the norm! We rested here, snacked some and enjoyed the lake and nature. It was a lovely day, in the 80's at the base, but cooler up this high.
Lake Catherine:
and then back down! Just a day hike but a fun one!
firedew1 we need to hike again! :)