Today a good friend and I took off to the mountains to enjoy the amazing trails that are so close by. We ran the Tour de Lakes, a beautiful loop through a section of Rocky Mountain National Park. We hit the loop counter-clockwise seeing Bierstadt Lake, Cub Lake, Fern Lake, Fern Falls, Odessa Lake, Grace Falls, and Bear Lake. From there it was just a short hop back to Bierstadt and the trail head. It started dry but we ended up running through about two hours of rain. It didn't really bother me being July, but of course, as it was my first trip of the year into the high mountains I didn't bring my jacket. Duh. So I spent some time wet but eventually the clouds broke and we enjoyed the sunshine and some amazing views. The mountains were fantastic, flowers were out, and water was high. The falls were all raging, and we were nearly run off the trail by a moose. What a day. A bit over 15 miles, nearly 4k feet of climbing with about the same of decent. I've added some technical information so you can see the route and elevation plus some pictures. This is why I live in Colorado.
