Sky Pond Trail

From Hiking

[edit] Finding the Trail Head

From Estes Park, enter the Rocky Mountain National Park on US-36. Turn left on Bear Lake Road. Park at the Park and Ride and take the Park shuttle to the Glacier Gorge trail head. Parking is almost never available at this lot.

Map of the Sky Pond trail

[edit] Description

The trail starts with a gentle descent into the Glacier Creek valley and then an easy climb along the creek to Alberta Falls. The trail follows Glacier Creek and then Icy Brook in a moderate climb up to The Loch. At the head of the Loch Vale, the trail climbs steeply up stone steps to a rock face. From here, the trail is a scramble, hopping from rock to rock following a small stream and the up a steep rock fall alongside a small cascade. At the top, is the Lake of Glass (or Lake of Whitecaps the day I was there). It's easy to lose the trail here. You need to climb the outcrop where the trail comes in sight of the lake, but switch back by the big standing stone on top of the outcrop and down along the right hand shore of the lake. From the Lake of Glass, it's a moderate climb up to Sky Pond.

[edit] Experience

This hike has wonderful and wonderfully varied terrain from start to finish. Where the trail follows streams or lake shores, the country is lush, even in the alpine meadow just below Sky Pond. The trail passes under massive, shear rock faces where full grown trees clinging to the cliffs look like moss. Although Sky Pond sits in a classic cirque, the edges of the valley have eroded into fantastic, multicolored spires.

The Sky Pond trail becomes a scramble up a rock fall beside a small cataract just below the Lake of Glass

View of the Lake of Glass and beyond from Sky Pond