 Alpine Spring Beauty It's time for Ask Dr. Day Hikes: Dear RMDH, Hi! Do you know if flowers are starting to bloom along the Fern Lake Trail? ML KD Thanks for the question ML KD! The trail is definitely hike ready to The Pool and up to Fern Falls. Flowers are just starting to bloom along the lower section of the Fern Lake trail. I saw a few patches of Alpine Spring Beauties and the yellow Hollygrape mostly (and dandelions). And the aspens are starting to leaf out. As I drove into Moraine Park, I could see that the upper Big Thompson River had swelled to the top of the river banks from spring runoff, but has yet to flood the meadow. I also noticed that the parking at the Cub Lake trailhead was full at mid-day. mid-week in mid-May. The road to the Fern Lake trailhead was open and the parking lot there was full as well. As the photos below show, the trail to The Pool was snow free and dry, though not entirely runoff free. There were only a few snow patches of snow approaching Fern Falls and the Falls only had snow along the edges. I did not hike to Fern Lake but hikers coming sown said there was still a packed snow trail to the Lake and about knee deep snow if you stepped off the snow trail.
 Mourning Cloak Butterfly
 Flowering Creeping Hollygrape
 Fern lake trail approaching Fern Falls  Fern Falls
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"The wild requires that we learn the terrain, nod to all the plants and animals and birds, ford the streams and cross the ridges, and tell a good story when we get back home." ~ Gary Snyder
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“Hiking -I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of the word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, A la sainte terre,’ ‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them.” ~ John Muir |
