Tombstone Lakes October 15 2016

 VARIETY

is the

SPICE

of

LIFE

What a spicy day we had!

A destination to hike to that packaged together includes all that I am looking for these days is Tombstone Lakes.  I hoped for a little bit of snow, I dreamt for open water, I wished for stunning scenery and I wanted fun friends to share all this with.  I got it all and a variety of each to boot!   

view as we arrived at Elbow Lake

For the most part as we hiked beside Elbow Lake and along the Big Elbow Trail, the weather was a little on the wild side.  We experienced those 85km/hr gusts of wind that were called for and lots of cloud cover.  We pushed through that and as we neared the turn off for down hill the sky began to open up.

We met the Conservation Office as we were heading in.  He was on his way out from his home heading back towards Elbow Lake.  We conversed for a few minutes exchanging knowledge of the where-abouts of hunters.  He questioned us if we saw a solo hunter in the area, which we did not.  We stopped by the residence for a snack stop on the deck.

The weather was becoming quite lovely.  In one direction the sky opened up immensely.  We found the trail leading down to Lower Tombstone Lake and I was elated to see it fully opened and not iced over.  We hiked around it in calf deep snow to the far end.  This is the view from the far end looking back.

Then, only a few minutes later, a few meters higher, and a few meters further, we arrived at Upper Tombstone Lake.  What a variety of appearances of the lakes today.  Lower's Upper sister was totally frozen surrounded in snow and gray clouds.  Normally this would be an ideal spot for lunch.....

.....but I spied an upper ledge that had potential for views so we made our way up.  Over the rocks, through the snow, around the boulders, we arrived at the top with a grand view of the Upper Tombstone Lake below us.

my destination shot

We enjoyed lunch up here, then took care of capturing our group and individual photos.  I enjoyed being in this much snow.  It was a gradual introduction to the season.  I watched my friends work their way back down to the Lake.

We headed back the way we came except for hiking around the opposite side of the Lower Lake and then back out to the main trail.  From a winter wonderland at the Lakes to a gorgeous autumn day at the meadows, we were fortunate to have such a variety of terrain and scenery to experience.  We hiked through the Upper Tombstone Campground before heading back out to the main Big Elbow Trail.

enjoying the view

I kept looking back at the view behind us.  

That's where all the blue sky was.  

After that one final look back, it was time to keep focused in front and aim for Elbow Lake.  

The mountain view in front was amazing.  

We returned via the other side of Elbow Lake.  This time I opted to return on the trail that was right at the water's edge.  It afforded some pretty sights.  Here you have one Lake, with a variety of views from one side to the other.

After passing through the Elbow Campground where a few tents were set up for the night, we arrived back at the head of the Lake.  The few open spots of water made for a photographers delight.  We savoured the final views then hit the last kilometer downhill to the parking lot.

On the drive home, we needed to make a short stop.  I was admiring this cloud for part of our drive and when we made that quick stop, I hopped out to grab a shot.  This just added to the variety of scenes we saw today.

I sure do like it when all things fall into place in all the right ways.  

I loved that about today!