The trail we decided to tackle today was an approximately 9-mile (roundtrip) hike to Sky Pond. This hike is considered strenuous and has an elevation gain of 1780 ft. The first attraction on the trail was Alberta Falls. It was a scenic falls and the trail followed along the river leading toward and away from the falls. The river was lovely to hike near and there were also beautiful mountain views the entire time.
The trail was mostly covered in slippery snow. Two guys on skis went past us as we climbed up. It was a tough uphill climb most of the way. We got lost a few times, but found our way back to the trail eventually. It is pretty well traveled, so that helped. My sister recently visited this area and mentioned that the boys and I should pack microspikes or snowshoes. I naively thought the snow would be gone by the time we got here, but now I think that perhaps it never fully vanishes from these trails. I couldn't conceive of fitting anything else in our car, but considering how many snowy trails we have done, they probably would have been worth trying to fit.
Despite our lack of snowshoes we made it to Glass Lake. It was a really steep push at the end to get there and I slipped many times. From there we climbed over rocks and through more snow to get to Sky Pond. The entire hike provided amazing views and the ones at the top were no exception. I was chased by a yellow-bellied marmot as we walked around Glass Lake going back down. I screamed and ran away. Apparently, people have been feeding it. Grrr. I found out later it had also chased Ezi. I could have kicked it or sprayed it with bear spray, but was glad I didn't have to do that.
The only way to really get down from Glass Lake was to slide, slip, and roll down. I nearly took out a hiker who had just slid down because I had so much less control sliding down than I was expecting. We did this and when we got to the bottom of the steep part below Glass Lake, I realized I had lost my bear spray toward the top. The boys and I climbed back up the insane slope and Ezi found the bear spray. Fortunately, he was a little bit ahead of me on the slope and I didn't have to go up all the way to the top. Then, we slid back down again. At the bottom of this section we were sore head to toe, wet, had soaked boots and socks, and another 4 or so miles back to the car.
We made good time back to the car. The boys essentially "skied" on their boots for much of the way.
This was a hard hike, especially with the snow. However, it provided picturesque and gorgeous views pretty much the entire time. It was also a total adventure and we were all so excited we were able to do it. On the way out of the park we got some good pictures of some elk.
