(Continued from page 1.)
The last photo I showed you was the mirror-like pond in the marshy area
just before reaching Clear Lake. Let's continue along the road past lots
of marsh marigolds:
Water from Clear Lake flows from the outlet creek through this marsh. A
little farther along the road I took these pictures of interesting
snow-melt sculptures along the creek:
Note the bright green plants coming up where the snow has just melted.
They are probably marsh marigolds.
The next picture looks to the right (west) before the road curves
again:
The area in the foreground was completely covered in snow eight days
ago. That's the part I didn't want to cross for fear of falling through
a snow bridge or post-holing too deep to extract myself.
I continued walking on the road to the left until I could see the lake
beyond the rise:
Two people sit by the edge of the lake.
Clear Lake still has a lot of ice but it isn’t completely covered with
ice and snow now. I wasn't able to reach the lake last week so I was
very curious to see what it looks like today.
There’s definitely more snow and ice in the basin surrounding the lake than I’ve ever
seen before in June or July. It's fascinating to me. Most of the snow
was very soft and Cody had fun playing in it.
Last week no one could drive the last mile to the lake so I had the
lower part of the basin to myself.
Now 4WD vehicles can get up there.
Several other people came and went while I was at the lake. Some were fishing,
some having a picnic, some just wandering around like I was.
The basin is so large that any people in these photos look like specks.
CLIMBING HIGHER
I had enough time – and the increasing clouds were still fluffy white –
to wander around the lake area for over an hour.
Soon after reaching the lake I climbed up some Jeep tracks (visible in
the next picture) to a bench partway up the slope on the north, reaching
about 12,300 feet elevation:
I started at 9,808 feet elevation, for a total elevation gain/loss of
about 5,000 feet with various ups and downs around the lake.
One time Jim and I climbed all the way up this slope to peer over into
the next valley but I didn't go up that high today.
This is a view toward the NW part of the basin after I climbed up
200-300 feet in elevation:
There are several streams of water flowing down that slope this time of
year, making for some very wet footing as I walked across the spongy
tundra and back down to the lake:
I angled west toward the far end of the lake as I descended, taking
photos of the lake from the north slope of the basin:
East end of the lake near the outlet
The far end of the lake is covered in more ice.
FAR OUT
This is the first time I've ever walked back this far to the other end
of the lake. I stayed up on the cliff at that end to observe the flowers and ice:
I turned around after that patch of yellow avens near the far end of the lake
and worked my way back to the lake outlet, gradually dropping down to
the edge of the lake when the slope wasn't as steep:
Marsh marigolds and Parry's primrose near the back
wall of the lake
Another backwards glance
One of several streams coming down from the north
slope of the basin
The views from the far end of the lake toward the lake outlet were
equally scenic, especially with all the unique ice patterns and
reflections in the water:
Wet footing through the marsh marigolds
SHORE PERSPECTIVE
About halfway back to the lake outlet I could get down closer to the
water. I took these photos as I walked back to the lake outlet and lower
basin.
Much of the footing was either very wet or through snow:
All too soon I was near the lake outlet:
I continued walking along the creek until I reached the marsh pond below
Clear Lake. I'll show pictures of that in just a bit. But first I want to
show you some of the colorful flowers, interesting ice patterns,
artistic reflections, and unusual marks in the snow around the lake.
Continued on the next page . . .
