lake helene hike

I went up to Lake Helene in Rocky Mountain National Park last Sunday (September 6th), but it’s not the hike I wanted to do last weekend. All summer long, I had it in mind to do Mount Elbert over the Labor Day weekend to send summer out with a big bang. And in Colorado, it doesn’t get any bigger than 14,433-foot tall Elbert. But the weather forecast was just looking too iffy for me to drive all the way up there and chance the long hike at that altitude, so I reluctantly decided to switch gears and just stay closer to home for a hike up in RMNP.

Lake Helene is a 3.2 mile hike (one-way distance) from the Bear Lake Trailhead. It lies at 10,580 feet, so the total elevation gain from the trailhead is a very manageable 1,130 feet. For a goodly portion of the way, the trail climbs through thick, tangled pine forest. Since I was hiking through the forest in the dark before sunrise, and since it was very windy, I actually dug out my bear bell and attached it to my pack. The wind was blowing steadily in my face, so the last thing I wanted to do was stumble upon some black bear & cub that didn’t hear me or smell me as I made my way up the trail. This was probably a needless precaution… but better safe than sorry.

It took me a wee bit longer than I thought to get up to the lake, so I missed any alpenglow that might have lit up Notchtop Mountain at sunrise. As I was getting closer to Lake Helene, I also noticed the (almost) full moon was rapidly setting just behind Notchtop and might make a neat shot with the mountain & the lake… but I missed that, too. Stink.

Getting to the lake actually requires a short jaunt off the “official” trail, along one of the fisherman’s trails that winds through the trees & rocks & scrub. I found Lake Helene with no problem, but after I saw how tangled & messy the trees and undergrowth were in the area, I abandoned the idea I’d had to also try and find Two Rivers Lake. Two Rivers supposedly lays just a hop, skip, & a jump northeast of Helen, but I’ll save that bushwhacking for another day.

Anyway, just as I got down to Lake Helene, I broke away from the path when I reached a rocky streambed and followed that streambed south for a very short distance to the eastern shore of the lake. Because of the stiff wind, the water on the lake was so choppy that any kind of reflection shot was out of the question (or so I thought). I was determined to find some sort of interesting shot, though, so I hunted along the shore of the lake until I found a small pool of water that was sheltered by some rocks which were acting as a windbreak. As a result of those outlying rocks, the water in the pool was a bit calmer & I was able to get a reflection of Notchtop Mountain in it. A fuzzy, inexact reflection, but a reflection nontheless, by golly. Take that, wind!

I definitely want to head back to Lake Helene sometime. This is a marvelous spot, with the distinctive notch in Notchtop Mountain (12,160+ feet) just across the way. I’m certain that with a bit of alpenglow on Notchtop at sunrise, coupled with a mirror-perfect reflection of the peak, Lake Helene will produce a must-print shot that I’ll have hanging on my wall.

Thanks for reading about stuff I’ve photographed. ~Rich