Hope Lake - a terrific hike!

We ventured up to this trail because the sign at Trout Lake said there was fishing at Hope Lake "accessible by a trail, 3 miles up the road".  It was more like, 2 miles up a paved road, then 3 miles on a narrow, windy, rutted dirt road to a trailhead, from where it was a 7 mile round trip hike, 1800 ft climb, to the lake.  After having done the rutted road, we decided...well we're here - might as well check it out. So glad we did - both of us thought it was the best hike we've done!  Despite pouring rain, ground-shaking thunder, lightning, and a good 20 minutes of serious hail, we had a great time! And the scenery was unbeatable. 

Never seen so many marmots and pikas - every rock field was full of them...

As we approached the lake, we noticed the clouds really looking ominous, and were getting our rain gear on, when the hikers just ahead of us came hurriedly trotting back down the trail, saying "head for the tree line!!!"   So we headed back down the hill about a half mile to the tree line, getting completely soaked on the way despite our rain gear. Waited out the rain and a heavy hail storm just under the tree line - great ear-splitting thunder - with a nice dad and his little boys (one of whom kept saying "we're gonna die, we're gonna die" jokingly of course) .....then low and behold....blue sky so we could finish the hike! It was fun and we had a nice laugh with our fellow survivors...

Absolutely stunning scenery...

and of course, wildflowers....




A little trio of Ptarmigan walked the trail with us for a few minutes....

At the end, clouds were building, and you could no longer see the peaks we had just hiked to (behind Gary, beyond the upper ridge in this last picture) - but we made it out before the next storm broke.  Whew! We had a great time on this hike....would be happy to do it again, and perhaps we'll have better weather to allow us to hang out at the lake a bit longer - and maybe, do some fishing!