Cascades at the End of Moraine Lake

July 23, 2009

Darla and Jeff and the girls found a trail in beside the rushing stream that runs into the end of Moraine Lake from the glaciers. When Brenda and I had hiked last year, we had tried to skirt around this area higher to see the high cascades, and had gotten very tangled up and hadn't found this beautiful area.

These wild, multi-stranded cascades were a delight. Emerging from the dark woods, they made you really feel that you were in the wilderness. The roar of the water was very soothing and added to the beauty of the morning.

This is just the kind of wilderness setting as an experience for the girls that we had in mind in planning the trip. So this was a time of rejoicing and praising God for the incredible beauty of His creation.

This wonderful place was a discovery for all of us since Brenda and I had not found the trail to this location last year.

Jeff and Mark got a little more adventerous about getting out on the rocks in the stream.

We pushed on up toward the wilder regions of the stream. Uncle Mark keeps a hand on Elyse as she climbs over rocks in the stream. With lots of downed logs, the going was a bit tougher now.

The girls were enjoying climbing on the rocks, so we continued to push farther along the rocky path through the woods.

With lots of large boulders in the stream at this point, Jeff and Ashleigh try some rock-hopping. With all the stuff we did, it was remarkable that noone fell in.

We had spent well over an hour playing along this wonderful stream. We were now heading out, but it was hard to leave.

Hiking out on the trail beside the stream, we now catch sight of turquoise-blue Moraine Lake ahead of us.

Besides being beautiful, this glacial stream was very remarkable in many ways at the point were it emptied into Moraine Lake. It was very wide and active, but had lots of patches of vegetation out in the stream. There were many places on the trail near the stream mouth where you could look down into openings and see clear water that was actually moving as part of the steam flow. This pool opening above is an example. The water was crystal clear, and it was actively circulating as part of the stream current. It gave you a strange feeling to be walking above an actively circulating water system - it might just give way at any point.

We headed back along the lakeside trail toward the lodge and parking area. All along the way are the little streams with flowers, an area unspoiled and vitally alive.

And speaking of alive, Darla and the girls still had enough life in them to run the trail back toward the lodge.

We made it back to the cars and said goodbye to Moraine Lake and this great mountain ridge that stands above it.

It was 12:30 local time when we pulled out, so we had spent a very memorable three and a half hours at Moraine Lake.