Colorado's Hanging Lake

Most beautiful Places #29

This popular hiking destination is in Glenwood Canyon, seven miles east of the town of Glenwood Springs. To prevent it being "loved to death" by the abundance of visitors, strict visitation rules have been implemented since 2019, and I'm glad I'd hiked the trail numerous times before access became so regulated.  Now, a paid permit and a reservation time are required to access the trailhead to the lake (fees vary by season) and visitation is limited. More info is available here.  In 2011 it was named a National Natural Landmark. Parking is restricted and even those who bike the Glenwood Canyon Bike Trail to reach the trailhead must pay the $12 hiking fee and have a reservation.  The trail is now only available to hike from May 1st to October 31st.

The property and former homestead were purchased by Glenwood Springs in 1910 and during the 1940s this was home to a resort and cafe until I-70 construction began in the 1960s. This was the final section of the Interstate System to be constructed due to the complexity of building it,  and it has been hailed as an engineering marvel because of the care taken to incorporate the interstate into the fragile canyon environment while leaving as much of the flora and fauna intact as possible.  

Construction included three tunnels, 15 miles of retaining walls, and a  number of cantilever structures The project required 30 million pounds of structural steel, 30 million pounds of reinforcing steel, and 400,000 cubic yards of concrete weighing 1.62 billion pounds. The popular Hanging Lake area was protected by taking the highway across the river on these long spans that disappear into two 4000 foot long tunnels seen below. The railroad tracks, which are mainly across the river from I-70, can be seen beneath the tunnels after the road crosses the Colorado River.  After exiting the tunnels, other road spans return the road to the other side.

Below are photos showing other "solutions" used in narrow sections of the roadway. Construction finished in 1992. Landscaping contracts were awarded to two companies, each doing half the canyon's length.

The Hanging Lake Trail is considered a rugged backcountry trail which runs 1.2 miles up Dead Horse Gulch, gaining 1000 feet in elevation to reach the travertine lake whose turquoise colors are produced by carbonate minerals that have dissolved in the water. The lake is located on a fault line and was created when a nearly two acre section of the valley floor sheered off and dropped down to what is now the shallow lake.

Some sections are rock scrambling...

...and steeper sections have stone stairs and even railings...

The strenuous climb is well worth your effort!

Once at the lake, make sure you follow this sign taking you a bit higher up to Spouting Rock...

Visitors are now prohibited from walking on the logs, but no such rule existed 15 years ago...

Below are a few photos to show how the bike trail was integrated into the road's construction...

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve

 

    

New River Gorge Park and Preserve was established in 1978 as a national river and elevated to national park status in 2020. It stretches 53 miles from Hinton to Ansted, West Virginia, and preserves the longest and deepest river gorge in the Appalachian Mountains "for the purpose of conserving and interpreting outstanding natural, scenic, and historic values and objects in and around the New River Gorge and preserving as a free-flowing stream an important segment of the New River in West Virginia for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations."  

Hiking, white water rafting, and climbing are the primary activities it offers, though several trails following old railroad grades are open to bikes. Also offered are fishing, hunting, bird watching, picnicking, and just enjoying the natural world. Four primitive camping areas within the park are  located along the river. Ten percent of the land is designated national park and the remaining 90% is national preserve.  

The Lower Gorge is a premier whitewater rafting venue with rapids ranging from Class III to Class V, many obstructed by large boulders which create powerful currents, crosscurrents, and hydraulics. Commercial outfitters offer trips from April through October. The upper section of the river has Class I to III rapids and allows whitewater canoeing.

    

The New River continues into Virginia, and despite its name, it is claimed to geologically be one of the five oldest rivers (or according to some, the second oldest river) in the world. I have biked the Virginia New River Trail State Park which traverses 57 miles through four counties and three towns in Virginia, following the right-of-way of the Norfolk Southern Railroad which donated the land to Virginia.  I've also rafted this section in West Virginia.

Swimming with the manatees

In 2009, we swam with the manatees with American Pro Diving Center in Dunnellon, Florida, a company with a reputation for promoting a strong environmental ethic. Manatees are an endangered and protected animal. They are mammals and prefer vegetation, often eating up to 15% of their body weight daily. They average 10 feet long and 1,000 pounds, which includes very little fat. An adult manatee spends as much as 8 hours a day eating and the remainder of the day resting or traveling. The are docile, slow, easy-going animals, with nicknames such as "gentle giant" and "sea cow," and they winter in coastal areas in Florida and southern Georgia. They especially prefer the slow-moving rivers and shallow coves and bays where there are warm springs (72 degree water) and lush sea grass beds, and our guide found a number of them in a spring in Kings Bay this morning. This is one of only a few places that permit you to get into the water with them and pet them as we did, wearing wet suits, snorkels, and face masks...

They have adorable faces...

...and sociable traits which leads them to approach you. Many even like your touch on their backs ( thick and wrinkled skin often with growths of algae on them). Several also rolled over and presented their stomachs for petting, and that skin is softer and finer. Forelimb flippers act like arms that allow them to maneuver, to "walk" in shallow water, and to scoop food to their flexible, grasping lips, while a powerful, flat tail propels their massive bodies across the water.

Since they are so trusting and friendly, they are easy targets for those out to do harm to them and also susceptible to propellers of motor craft. Many manatees have numerous scars from prop blades and death rates are high from speeding boats. Therefore, manatee zones are well marked and idle speeds enforced rigorously. Able to hold their breath for up to 15 minutes while resting, manatees have huge lungs that exchange 98% of their contents in one breath. Their nostrils, located on top of their faces for easy breathing, have tight-fitting flaps that keep the water out when they're submerged. Gushes of strong exhalation at the water surface reveal the manatees' presence.

We swam with them for 75 minutes. The air temperature at 8am was only around 50 degrees, but the water in springs in 72 degrees and the dry suits kept us warm. This activity is one of the highlights of this trip!

Swamps

Swamps are interesting and beautiful places to explore by canoe or kayak, and when I found one in my home state of Illinois, I couldn't resist experiencing it. Totaling 14,961 acres in far southern Illinois, the Cache River State Natural Area is a floodplain carved long ago by glacial melt off. The glaciers stopped just before what is now the Shawnee National Forest, thus creating its lovely hills and rock formations, and when they melted, the Ohio River adopted its current course and the Cache River meandered across rich and vast wetlands.

 The cypress trees are one of the outstanding natural features which developed here. Their flared bases (called buttresses) can exceed 40 feet in circumference, and many are over 1000 years old!

Tupelo trees are also prevalent here...

The Okefenokee Swamp straddles the Georgia-Florida border and is a National Wildlife Preserve covering 396,000 acres and is a designated national wilderness area. I've entered the swamp from all three entrances and paddled and hiked here.

 I also paddled the cypress swamp of Texas' Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge and also Armand Bayou, enjoying the scenery and abundant wildlife of the cypress wonderland. 

We also visited Houston Audubon Society's Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary with roseate spoonbills and great white herons as well as cormorants, white ibis, and others

Sparkleberry Swamp (also known as Rimini Swamp for the nearby town) and Stump Hole Swamp were the domain of General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox" of the Revolutionary War.

Congaree National Park is in central South Carolina and was created as the Congaree Swamp National Monument. Its 24,000 acres are not technically a swamp but rather a remnant old growth floodplain forest and the name honors the local Congaree Indians. This area was also home to the legendary Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox."

Audubon Society's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (Florida) conserves 13,000 magnificent acres, protecting fragile 500-year-old bald cypress trees and providing habitat for migratory and permanent wildlife as well as strangler figs, native grasses, pond apple and red maple trees, and the seasonal ghost orchid plant.

This off-trail slog through the swamp of Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park in Florida entailed 90 minutes of hiking in water up to waist deep in search of elusive orchids and other plants and whatever else caught our attention in this unique eco-system.

Florida's East River near Big Cypress Preserve where our paddling skills were challenged by the narrow, twisting tunnels of mangrove, often barely wider than the kayaks, but a truly beautiful place to boat. Herons, egrets, jumping mullet fish, and even a swimming alligator all enthralled us as we plied the waters.

Twice while biking Georgia's Jekyll Island I encountered this guy was alongside the trail as the trail wends through a bit of a wetlands area...

Sierra Club's Service Project in Rocky Mountain National Park

Twenty Sierra Club members and two outings leaders met at the YMCA of the Rockies abutting Rocky Mountain National Park for a week of volunteer service to the national park. We stayed in a large 5 bedroom, 2 bathroom YMCA cabin called the Ranch House. The full kitchen had two refrigerators, two microwaves, two stoves, two ovens, and two dishwashers, which made meals much easier. Unfortunately, all 22 of us had to share just two bathrooms.

We were ably led by National Park Service rangers/biologists Kate, Camille, and Jesse, and for four days we worked a variety of tasks. Many of us were surprised to learn that RMNP is one of just 14 national parks with state-of-the art greenhouses and plant nurseries and that the biologists did extensive work eliminating invasive plant species and re-planting areas where human interference had injured the park flora. And since the park has different species of plants on the east and west sides of the mountains, each area gets only the plants appropriate to its side. Also, since the high alpine areas like Long's Peak at 14,259 feet elevation (the highest point in RMNP) have yet a third type of flora, the rangers hike up there to harvest seeds from up high as well as to revegetate the alpine areas with flora grown from those seeds. The greenhouse produces between 35,000 and 55,000 plants annually for restoration work! Once, a small Ziplock bag full of bear scat collected by a ranger had enough small berry seeds to grow 1200 seedlings of Oregon grape and chokeberry.

The first day we went to Moraine Park Campground and removed invasive monk and bull thistle seed pods seen below as round purple, white, and brown balls...

...as well as invasive mullein weed, seen below being held by ranger Camille...

Covering 48 acres, our group carefully removed the seed pods from these three varieties to prevent more infestation, and then we dug out the offending plants.  The seed pods were placed into paper bags as seen above and taken back to the nursery area, where the bag and contents will be incinerated by this monster machine...

The bags are placed in the burn box and the flames come from the holes seen along the top right edge of the burn box...

On day 2, we were driven over the mountain to the west slope's Timber Creek Campground. A new sewer pipe had been buried in the campground and such human "disturbances" of the natural terrain have to be remediated, so we raked a narrow swath totaling  just over half an acre to loosen the soil. 

Camille and Jesse then spread the native Bromine grass seed on the loose soil...

...which we then raked into the soil...

...and then we covered it all with mulch to keep birds and other critters from finding and eating the seeds.

In the photo below, you can see about half of the area we worked on. The winter snows will blanket the area, and after melting next spring, the moisture will allow the seed to grow and once again the disturbed area will have native grass and blend in with the natural look.

On day three, we were taken to the Glacier Basin Campground area where some of our group planted about 350 junegrass plugs within a fenced enclosure...

...and then they collected the seeds of the bottlebrush squirreltail, a wild rye, cool-season, quick establishing but short-lived perennial bunchgrass seen below. The seeds were taken to the greenhouse to grow more plants for future use.

Meanwhile, five of us worked on improving the "security" of the encircling fence, which meant adding fine mesh to prevent critters from being able to climb through or up and over the fence as they attempt to reach the enticing young plantings.

The fence is already buried 18 inches into the ground to keep moles out, but agile animals can climb the fence, so we extended the height of the tight mesh fencing...

...and then curled the top to impede climbing over the top.

On the fourth day, we all went to the greenhouse/nursery area. Two varieties of plants which had been started in small cone-shaped containers had outgrown them and needed to be replanted in larger containers. Below, I am holding the container and the young plant which I have removed prior to replanting it in the round container on the table.

We transplanted over 500 plants into the larger containers where they will spend the winter before being replanted where they are needed next year.

Here are some of larger containers we had filled. The plants are below ground level for protection and they will be blanketed with a deep cover of mulch all winter, and next year they will be dug out of the mulch and then transplanted into the ground where needed.

At the same time, a crew was digging in the rock-laden ground to clear and level a below ground space for Jesse's planned hoop-and-plastic covered enclosure, beneath which more plantings will spend the winter until replanted next year.

We finished the day with a tour of the greenhouse with its fans and heaters and air conditioners and retractable roof. Kate and Camille explained the operation of the greenhouse and how it is vital to their mission.

A Ziplock of bear poop once yielded 1200 seedlings of orange grass and chokeberry!

Each day, our ranger-leaders were congenial and patient with us neophytes, explaining what to do and why we were doing it, calmly answering all our questions, and proficiently demonstrating how to perform the tasks we had been assigned.

Camille

Jesse and Kate

And special thanks to our Sierra Club leader, Jim...

...and also our innovative and tireless cook extraordinaire, Robin!

And here's our stalwart crew of Sierra Club members who traveled from all over the country to assist in this week's efforts!

47 photos are available for download from Shutterfly here

Here's a brief video of our week's project: