The sandy banks of Swiftcurrent Lake, as seen from the Grinnell Glacier trail. Every curvature of this ancient shoreline reflects incredible topographical diversity in saturated color. The lake has been carved over thousands of years into a 30ft-deep granite bowl cradled by pine-studded mountains, which were just beginning to cast dusky shadows over the edges of the crystalline water as we hiked by. The piercing blue-green color of the lake itself is a product of "rock flour" which sloughs off the surrounding stone and which today is likely also responsible for the bright orange fringe of iron-rich sediment framing the shrub-covered coast.
tagged: morning hiking lake shore glacier autumn
