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| Zimmerman Lake parking lot, trailhead sign (trailhead is on north side of Highway 14) | Beginning of the trail. | Wildflowers along the trail. | Kodak moment along a babbling brook near the bottom. | Very shady trail - notice the moss on the trail! | ||
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| About 9/10 of the way up is a trail sign that in snowshoe season is about waist high, now way up in the air! Here's what it looked like when we snowshoed up here in February | Just across the trail from this trail sign are the remains of an old cabin. | |||||
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| Nearly at treeline is a gorgeous vista to the north. | Montgomery Pass. You can tell from my hair blowing that it's windy! The hike is 2 miles each way, 1000' elevation gain, top is at 11,000 feet. | Looking north-west, over the far snow-covered peaks is Steamboat. | Looking south-west into south side of North Park | Looking down into North Park and Walden. Here and in the valley floor, there's more brown/rust dead beetle-kill trees than green healthy trees :-( | ||
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| Looking north from Montgomery Pass. I think the right high peak is Clark Peak. Too windy today to try it, our ears were starting to hurt already. | Fresh digging - gophers? Marmots? | Brilliant colored mushrooms. | Back down to the babbling brook, several small waterfalls. | Back at Zimmerman Lake parking lot, foot trail goes off to the south-east, to Joe Wright? Don't know. | ||
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| Joe Wright Reservoir and Creek rules. | Southwest side of the parking lot is the Zimmerman Lake trailhead. Only 1 mile and just under 500' of elevation gain - same steepness as Montgomery Pass trail. | Back in April when we snowshoed up here for snowcaving , this sign was at knee level. | On the way back we stopped here to find the "Loop Trail". No hiking trail that we could find, though in winter you can snowshoe anywhere. | |||
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| Same shot as from April 2010 but grass instead of snow now! | At Zimmerman Lake, Loop Trail off to the left. | Northwest corner of Zimmerman Lake looking east. | Looking south-east, a few fisherman on the lake in small one-person rafts. | This is where we snow-caved in April. | ||
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| Bob's at the bottom of the ridge looking up. | Wind drops a lot of snow here, and the steep ridge makes it easy to dig caves here. This is one of the "primo" spots for snow caving on Cameron Pass. | This great area for snow-caving is a short way along the Loop Trail, at the north-east edge of Zimmerman Lake. | ||||
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| Go left (north) off the main Loop trail just a few feet to the ridge drop-off. | Notice blue trail marker on big fallen tree. | Lots more virulent-colored mushrooms. | Elk prints? too big for deer! | More bright bronze colored mushrooms. | ||
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| East side of the lake, three fisherman floating on the lake. | Yet another gorgeous babbling brook. | Very clear water! No pollution here. | Gorgeous wildflowers everywhere. | Crossing the brook as we headed back down. | ||
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| Across the road from Zimmerman Lake parking lot is a moose! | Bob walked across the road to get better pictures. She wasn't afraid and just kept eating. | Further up the road are a couple bull moose, only the antlers are visible here. | ||||
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| Man we feel priviledged to live here in Colorado and be able to see such wildlife up close. | |||