Tue, Aug 6, 2013

It's been a few days since our hike - too much to see and do here. We flew our son, Chase, up for 3 days so this was the hike of choice. None of us have been to Blue Lake but we've heard plenty of folks talking about how beautiful it is. We haven't hiked much in Rocky Mountain National Park this summer because we have Toby, our dog, with us. Roosevelt National Forest allows dogs on all of their trails while RMNP does not. This hike was a bit strenuous for our dog but he was a trooper. There wasn't a dull moment and wonderful photo ops along the way. Once you drive through the entrance to the forest, you'll drive by Brainard Lake and recreation area. You'll eventually come to a fork in the road where Isabelle Lake trailhead is to the left and then Michell Lake and Blue Lake trailhead is to the right. Here's a few pics from the hike up to Blue Lake. Then I'll tell you about this sweet woman who was so endearing.

Once we arrived at Blue Lake and sat down to take in all the beauty, we saw this lady in the blue jacket in the picture setting up here camera on the rock, running over to another rock to pose. She would quickly whip out a scrolled poster out of the inside of her jacket, smile and do a victory dance each time - the dance was different each time (I'm talking about 20 shots she took).  She caught our curiosity and others so she pulled in a small crowd to at least assist her in taking those pictures. She explained that she sojourns to this exact location every year for the last 20 years. The poster she pulls from her jacket says 20 years!  She's 60 plus years old, retired, and has made this a quest in her life.  One gentleman who assisted with taking one picture for her noticed that her camera was about 15 years old. He asked if he could just take pics on his camera and email them to her. She smiled and very politely explained that she doesn't deal with "that email stuff."  Got to love her!!!  I wish you could have seen and felt her enthusiasm each and everytime she set that camera of hers up and posed a triumphant pose for her records. Make us all smile.

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Lady from Wisconsin posing for her 20th visit to this exact spot at Blue Lake.