Knox Lake

What we were told: "Drive up the road a few miles to the trailhead and hike in a few miles on mostly level ground to the lake. It's a beautiful turquoise color, one of the prettiest lakes around."

What it was really: 6 teeth jarring miles of dirt road to the trailhead and a sign saying it was 4 miles to the lake. And it was all uphill.




This is all bear country, and hiking with just the two of us in back country is sometimes a little uncomfortable. Luckily on this day we passed a group of 5 horse back riders coming down as we went up and another couple walking up with their dogs as we walked down.






Even at that though, we yell "Hey bear, bear, bear" as we approach bends in the trail that you can't see around.










This is a spruce tree and they are quite numerous, lovely and large. Unfortunately, there are beetles attacking these giants and they are dying.










Here's one of the many lakes and/or ponds in the high elevations formed by snow runoff.











We loved this double lake below the trail. This is so serene looking. Notice how high up we've climbed by now.








This little brown ground squirrel is chewing on a white pine nut cone. This is a highly coveted treat for the bears and small critters. They tear these cones apart and eat all the nuts for protein to prepare for hibernation.













We finally reached more of a summit area and figured we had to be close.











Wow, and this is the wonderful lake? Really? Apparently not! This is what we surmised was Knox Lake but as we found out later, the real lake is just a short way up the trail. Oh bother! Now we have to come back and hike this trail again next year!





 Bob continues to think catching me in action with my river crossings is funny :)

The good news is the water was very low so not terribly threatening. But still way to deep to rock hop across.







And here is Bob practically dancing across. Sigh.













These open meadows are very pretty and just look like a moose should be walking around in. But as always, it's just grass and waterways lazily winding it's way through.









Ahh, yes, the 2nd crossing. Actually it's the 4th. We went across to go up and back to come down.








We are on the way back down the dirt road now but I wanted to stop to walk around this graveyard for a few minutes. It's mostly people born in the 1800's and died early 1900's but there was a whole new section of graves less than 15/20 years old.

We thought perhaps people that die on the trail we were on are brought here...ok, maybe not!

Miles hikes (with 2 small hikes I'm not blogging added in): 91