81. Tabor Lake, Sawatch Mountain Range, Colorado.jpg

Tabor Lake, Sawatch Range, Colorado

Deep within the Rocky Mountains, beneath the 13,000-foot Continental Divide in central Colorado, I hiked a well-trodden trail beside Tabor Creek. I scrambled through ice tunnels covering portions of the stream, climbed up a steep path, and entered the small basin that shelters Tabor Lake. Above the lake's west side, autumn's first dusting of snow blanketed the shaded scree slope below Tabor Peak. The lake's eastern edge met a thin layer of bedrock above a cliff, where its outflow tumbled down a breach in the rim.

Surrounded by the late season's brown tundra, the lake's still water reflected the fresh snow, transparently revealing a rocky bed painted in luminous hues of cobalt, emerald, and azure. Fed by melting snowfields, this glacial tarn is home to rainbow, brown, and cutthroat trout, the latter native to the high, isolated lakes of the Sawatch Range. At this time of year, with freezing nights, the lake's cold top layer sinks and mixes with the warmer water beneath. This process oxygenates the lake, helping the fish survive winter once an ice sheet covers its surface.

Overhead, eagles and small raptors glide on thermals along the mountain crest. On the scree slopes, bighorn sheep and mountain goats climb and congregate. Elk roam across the grassy slopes of the alpine valley below, while ptarmigans shelter in the krummholz, the stunted, wind-blown clusters of trees at the treeline. Fattened and insulated by a summer's worth of grazing, the wildlife will migrate to the protected alcoves and groves for shelter from winter storms.

Location research and commentary by James Baker.