A lake worthy of its name

6/7/2025 Goat Lake

What an amazing day at Goat Lake, one of the most picturesque in the entire state. My brother and I got an early start, which is good that we did, since the parking lot filled up very early this sunny Saturday morning.

There are two paths for the first half of the hike. One goes along the creek the entire way, with a bit of up and down. The other route is more flat, but it is away from the creek, and there is nothing much of interest to see. From experience, I knew to go both directions along the creek.

Once you reach the lake, you will be blown away by the view. When the water on the lake is still, the reflection of snow-covered Cadet Peak likes like a mirror image. You can also see freshly melted snow cascading down the vertical faces as waterfalls.

We stubbornly continued along the lake to a waterfall I saw on a map, but had never been to before. There was a bit of bushwhacking and going up and down, but it was still fun scrambling and repelling with ropes and branches. Honestly, that may not have been worth the extra effort, but you don't know until you try. That's my brother making the move to get down, while a "helped" by taking pictures.

It turns out, the best waterfalls can be viewed by dropping down from the main trail just below the lake. They are not obvious from the trail, but with little effort, you get a huge payoff, especially when the sun is directly overhead and the mist from the falls sparkled.