Chasm Lake with Jim and Jacqueline

Violin Jim is back in town for the Colorado Music Festival. We've seen two of his concerts (wonderful), visited with his 3-year-old twins, and had dinner with him and his wife Jacqueline this summer. Well, at dinner last week the idea of a hike came up. So, we planned a trip for the four of us up to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We met at the Longs Peak Ranger Cottage and hiked up the standard trail. It was a lovely walk through the forest. When we hit treeline, we saw many wild flowers and a few marmots.

We hiked up to the Chasm Lake overlook, had snack, and laughed over the cliff-side privy. We started to head down the trail to the lake, but were turned around by a huge snowfield on a 45-degree slope. None of us were equipped for such a crossing, plus Dan and I both had to get back to town for afternoon appointments and the clouds were getting darker.

On the way down we lucked out with the rain (just a bit while we were in the trees), but I think Jim cautioned everyone about the snowfield. He was disappointed we didn't get to go on (we were too!) but it was the safest choice. We got back to the cars in time for Dan and me to run up to Estes Park to get our backpacking permit for the weekend.

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