Lawn Lake

Lawn Lake is a high alpine lake in the park’s northern Mummy Range, close to 11,000 feet above sea level. Keep it for a full day: the National Park Service lists 6.2 miles from Lawn Lake Trailhead and 2,450 feet of climbing. That makes it a 12-mile-plus round trip, not a quick lakeside stop. The trail follows Roaring River for much of the way, then continues beyond the lake toward the Mummy Range.

The backcountry sites sit on the north side in mixed fir and spruce forest. There are four individual campsites, one stock site and a privy. Water from the inlet or outlet streams must be boiled or otherwise treated. Campfires are prohibited, and bear-resistant food canisters are required from April 1 through October 31. For a photo, keep some of the water in the foreground with the rocky cirque beyond it; the lake’s reflections are part of the payoff.

A dam once enlarged Lawn Lake. It failed on July 15, 1982, sending about 30 million cubic feet of water down Roaring River. The flood killed three people and caused more than $31 million in damage in Estes Park; at Horseshoe Park it spread into the 40-acre Alluvial Fan. The dam was later removed, and Lawn Lake returned to its original level.