Alpine Creek Trail

After breakfast, our adventures continued. We drove to Alturas Lake and a bit beyond to this trail head.

These are a couple of maps, showing our route.

Our destination: the largest of the Alpine Creek Lakes. We started at the trail head (labeled TH) and continued beyond the red dotted line, up 1/4 mile steep and rocky terrain, to the lake marked by the number 8,522.

Here's Gary, registering our trip (in case there became need for a rescue party). Eek.

The greater portion of our hike was on this slight upgrade, fairly easy trail. Throughout our trek, we walked by rocky cliffs, through beautiful meadows - speckled with colorful wildflowers, and through some areas of more dense pine forests.

Alpine Creek was beside us through our entire journey. In some places it was calm, as shown below.

Occasionally, we had to cross wet, marshy areas where streams trickled down the mountain side.

In one place, we had to cross rather rapidly moving water.

Gary snapped this photo as I timidly made my way across the log bridge, using a stick for stability.

I made it across, grateful that I didn't tumble into the cold, rushing water.

All around us, there were big and small miracles, God's Creation.

Here, we had just begun the steep ascent upward. Already I had broken a sweat and my heart rate was up and running. It was the technical stretch of our hike, where we had to plan our route, scrambling in some places on our hands and feet.

We made frequent stops to catch our breath...

...and to take in the glorious landscape all around us.

Per usual, I took many photos. Every 50 yards upward, the view seemed to become more and more astounding.

This is Alpine Trail Creek, storming down the mountain from our alpine lake destination.

This hike is one Gary has enjoyed 7 or 8 times since his early teens; a trip he'd wanted to share with me someday - and that lovely day arrived on July 3, 2010.

Absolutely magnificent!

Getting closer to the top.

The alpine lake we were striving for is just to the left of that rocky peak in the photo below.

Toward the top, we got our hands on snow - a sign of just how high up we were getting.

At this point, I was already thinking about how tough it was going to be, getting down again!

And this was the final view looking back, before I took a few steps further to lay my eyes upon the beautiful alpine lake we'd been hiking to for the past few hours. The total hike, round trip was about 9.5 miles. Our start point was just beyond the peak you see on the left hand side of this photo below. (The peak where the lower portion appears sandy and treeless).

Coming soon - the grand reward of our long, strenuous hike ~ the beautiful Alpine Creek Lake!