Mt Evans, the Summit Lake episode

Last we were driving up Mt Evans, we were feeling a little challenged by the road. After all, you don't get views like this one

very often.

So we drove up through the clouds and the gloom and suddenly came out at Summit Lake. This is a really pretty spot, even in clouds and gloom. I'll let the pics do the talking, though our knees and teeth could've told a whole story by themselves. It was almost literally freezing up there!









I've put together a panorama here, though it doesn't show the lake.

DH and I felt the cold acutely, and scuttled around madly trying to stay warm, looking around the place. To the west was a deep valley that wavered in and out of view as the clouds rolled past:


One thing that fascinated us was the condition of the road. There is a warning sign saying "rough and uneven surface" or words to that intent. Uneven surface is not the best description. It seems that the road has suffered frost heave - it goes over a patch of permafrost. The road undulates madly. It is certainly not something you want to drive over at anything more than speed hump, real speed hump not these fake things that don't slow anyone down, speed. Totally bizarre, but we didn't take a pic cos we didn't know the significance then. Apparently this is an area that has arctic flowers that are not known so far south anywhere else - not only is it alpine but it is arctic as well. I guess the flowers are there because of the permafrost....