Lawn & Crystal Lakes

I haven’t been up the Lawn Lake trail in a few years, nor in the Park all summer so it sounded like a good plan for the day.  The hike up was surprisingly mostly quiet and all to myself. 

I stopped to do some long exposure shots of the waterfall/cascades on the Roaring River below the lake.  The loose footing made for a slip slide down, but my camera and I made it unscathed.  There were a lot of options here and I probably could’ve spent hours playing.  I don’t know why, but I love creating long exposure photos.

I got to Lawn Lake and relaxed a little.  The wind was blowing in off the Saddle with a little chill.  Enough that I layered up while I was stopped.  I decided to walk around the lake to see what I could find before heading back.  The inlets were fun to practice perspective shots.

I had no intention of hiking up to Crystal Lake, but before I knew it, I was headed in that direction.  Just above the lake, I heard some rustling in the willows below the trail.  After seeing fresh bear tracks at the lake, I of course thought that’s who it was.  But, instead spotted two bull moose having brunch.

They paid no attention to me at all.

The trail to Crystal Lake is just beautiful.  Amazing views of the surrounding peaks, little cascades running down the slopes, giant house sized boulders all over, small ponds with big reflections, not to mention the grasses were starting to put on their fall colors.

If the hike out weren’t so long, I could’ve stayed all day taking it all in.