Gem Lake

I first discovered the hike up to this lake with Giancarla in May 2001. We had both graduated college over the weekend and decided in about a 2-minute conversation that driving to Colorado the next day was a good idea. We were wrong. It was a great idea. On our adventure, we headed up to go hiking in Estes Park (where else do you go hiking, according to us midwesterners?) thinking that Rocky Mountain National Park would be the perfect choice. It was perfect. But we had to pay for perfect. Being totally broke recent grads and still unemployed, we asked the guy at the gas station where we should go to hike that would be free. He gave us directions to a trailhead behind the Stanley Hotel and down the road from MacGregor Ranch. It sounded perfect. And that it was.

We wandered up the mountain to discover a precious lake at the top. You could see out over all of Estes Park at points, and by the time you made it to the big bowl that held the past season's snow melt, you were hidden away in the mountains, far from everyone and everything. We probably talked about the jobs that we would get and the fabulous places we'd live. And we most certainly felt hardcore, outdoorsy and adventurous.

Just over a year later, I found myself moving to Colorado from Seattle. Giancarla was still back in Chicago, but so much had changed since that Memorial Day conversation. I was starting Denver Seminary and going to call this glorious state home for a few years. So, of course, during my time in school and years following, I sometimes found myself back at this same trailhead that lead you into Rocky Mountain National Park...without paying because there was no ranger station.

I took Steve and Elisa there, two high school newspaper friends who visited. Joel Mitchell and I hiked together. He stopped in Denver on a road trip from Princeton to Seattle. We had interned together in Seattle and were both in seminary. There were many afternoons spent there alone - when I most wanted to get away but didn't have that much time. Annaliese joined me once when she first moved to Boulder, too. Kirstin and I headed up to Gem Lake after we had both moved away from Colorado - her to Portland and me to Austin - when we flew back to see Tara & Jess get married in Estes Park.

Today, after visiting Group Publishing and having lunch with former coworkers, I drove up 34 through the canyon, turned right at the Safeway, went around the corner by the Stanley and past MacGregor Ranch to the same trailhead. I passed it the first time by accident and had to turn around. The little, gravel pull off that was a make-shift lot for hikers had been replaced by a paved road and nice parking area. But it was still the same wonderful, Colorado hike - not too long and not too short, perfect for a beautiful afternoon in the mountains.

Oops! Wrong choice in shoes...oh well!