Crystal Lake

Yesterday Kimball hiked and fished Crystal Lake, elevation 11,520’, in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a strenuous hike starting out at 7AM and returning at 7PM. She fished Lawn Lake on the way back down the trail. The weather was beautiful but by the end of the day it started to rain on the way out. Wildlife was in abundance; snowshoe hares, marmots, squirrels and a startled big buck with velvet antlers almost ran her over on the trail.

Lawn Lake

She only spent an hour at Crystal because the clouds started building and not wanting to be caught above timberline with lightning. Hopping

across the outlet stream Kim fished from some big rocks high above the lake. When the sun

came out from behind the clouds one could see deep into the crystal-clear lake. Kim saw just a few fish and couldn’t get any takers with her flies but the fish that she saw were huge. They looked to be in the 20” range and the shape of a football. One greenback was totally red, resembling a salmon. Just as Kim was leaving the lake a pack of coyotes sounded off high

Looking down on Lawn Lake from Crystal trail

above the lake, up on the tundra, and echoed their cry throughout the valley. It was awesome to hear!

When Kimball hiked back down to Lawn Lake, she noticed lots of fish rising. Using her fly rod, she caught

many with a parachute Adams, and the spinning rod fly and bubble technique produced several greenbacks on a parachute Adams and black woolly bugger. The fish that were caught ranged between 6” and 14”, most being 12”.

The hike back to the trailhead was LONG and it was raining a good part of the way, but it had been an incredible day for hiking and fishing and seeing lots of wildlife.

Waterfalls and wildflowers

Part of the Crystal Lake trail