Roosevelt National Forest: Emmaline Lake Trail

I awoke this morning, packed up camp, and then made the long drive up Pingree Park Road to the Emmaline Lake Trailhead. I immediately hit the trail, which starts as a seldom used, 4x4 road. (It was blocked by a car with Indiana plates when I arrived.) 

Immediately, there was a lot of evidence of the Cameron Peak fire. The road, soon entered land belonging to the Colorado State University Mountain Campus.

Here the trail, an old road really, was relatively level,

and offered lots of views of the surrounding mountains up to the northern boundary of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Eventually, the trail crossed Fall Creek on a wooden footbridge, 

passed through a heavily burned area, and then entered back into the national forest at a wonderful meadow with a fantastic view.

At this point, the easy trail I had been following, became much more difficult. The trail entered the Comanche Peak Wilderness 

and started climbing in earnest. Soon patches of snow made the most direct path difficult to follow.

After a pretty tough climb, and some postholing in the snow, I finally found myself at a wonderful overlook of Emmaline Lake.

I took a break to eat a snack and rest with a wonderful view.

Then, I scrambled up to a high overlook of neighboring Cirque Lake.

I t was a long hike back to the car. At one point I found myself off of the route. It didn't take long for me to find my way through wet, swampy areas back to the trail 

and eventually, the car.