St. Mary's Glacier in Late Fall

Just a short drive from Denver Colorado, St. Mary's Glacier is a picturesque destination worth seeing.

The journey to St. Mary's Glacier starts up Fall Road; you know you're going the right way if you pass a giant rock painted like a pig.

The drive up Fall Road was wonderful and offered plenty of spots to pull over and gaze over snowcapped mountain ranges in the distance.

Once we reached the top of Fall Road there's two parking lots near the trail head. The lots both cost and the payment must be made in cash because it is a state park. We tried to find free parking and there really isn't any.

We parked, bundled up, and put the dogs on their leashes and headed up the trail. We did this hike in late fall and started the hike around 3:00 p.m. in order to catch sunset. Even though it was not peak season we ran in to a lot of fellow hikers. St. Mary's is a popular trail. The start of the hike is has a lot of loose rocks but is wide enough to avoid tripping unless you are clumsy like me.

The trail splits after about a half mile but never fear they all end up at the lake. We took the route to the left which was a bit more steep. Only about a half mile further and we reached the lake which takes your breath away.

Heading straight for the glassy lake we walked through these petrified looking trees that are both spooky and enchanting all at once.

One of the best photo ops at St. Mary's is at the fallen tree by the lake. Its a huge tree that lines up perfectly to capture the lake, mountain and glacier in the background.

The glacier is slowly melting and appears almost like snow. Being that we hiked in late fall I almost didn't realize where the glacier.

The glacier wraps around the slope of the mountain on the right of the lake and as we hiked toward it we saw people with skis and snowboards trying to ride the glacier down. They reiterated the fact that it was icy and made for a rough ride.

The glacier melting made a beautiful waterfall that crept under the ice and fell along the mountain creating more beautiful scenes.

Another good photo opt is overlooking the lake from on top of the glacier. There is a wonderful view of the mountain range and when we were there a fog was coming in letting us literally get caught in the clouds.

We didn't summit the glacier due to the sun setting and the fog rolling in. To avoid slipping on the way down we headed back.

We forgot to bring our head lamps and it made the hike down a little dangerous and along the path the loose rocks were an obstacle.

Our hike was a success and I can't wait to see it again in the summer time!