I always stayed away from hiking the trail to Hanging Lake near Glenwood Springs Colorado because of the heavy use it gets. I finally decided I needed to make the trip and picked January for my first ascent. I believed the colder temperatures and icy trail would keep people away. Boy was I wrong.

Getting a late start, I was amazed at the number of people that had the same adventure in mind. Still, once at the lake, I found the crowd was scattered along the trail and not as evident here. The falls were frozen with water crawling down the ice and utimately dripping into the lake. The water in the lake was mostly frozen with a small patch of open water right at the falls. All in all a great day. Because it was a last minute decision to visit, I had to leave well before I wanted.