I came across a posting online where someone claimed that of Sky Pond and Chasm Lake, Chasm Lake was their favorite RMNP hike. Sky Pond has been my favorite so I was intrigued. Chasm Lake sits beneath Longs Peak and launches from the same trailhead. Summer in Colorado means trailheads fill up quickly and early, even on weekdays but even more so when it's the entry for a 14'er in July. I got to the Longs Peak trailhead at 6:45 this morning and got one of the last two parking spots. I headed off at 7am.
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| Lots of beautiful cascades along the sides of the trail |
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| Alpine Tundra flowers |
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| Waterfall crossing |
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| Longs Peak comes into view finally |
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| These little guys are entirely too used to people |
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| The path becomes more rocky. |
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| Beautiful smaller lake (Mermaid Lake, I think) before the first set of falls |
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| The path was getting more difficult to follow as you can see here. |
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| Columbine everywhere! |
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| Came upon some folks sleeping at the top of the waterfall (you can see their packs on the left). They were likely preparing to summit Longs Peak. |
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| The upper parts of these hikes are usually so lush and green! |
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| Chasm Lake! |
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| quite the rock scramble to get up here |
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| This is on my way back down, looking back at the "trail" |
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| You can barely see the trail along the left. |
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| Love the color of that water |
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The NPS rangers were riding horses and donkeys up to do trail maintenance.
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The trail was 8.4 miles round trip and definitely was on the more difficult range. I think Sky Pond is still my favorite but this one was beautiful, nonetheless.
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