Heather Lake

 We drove up to Mountain Loop Highway just past Verlot to Hike up to Heather Lake. This is a 4 mile round trip hike with 1,100 ft of elevation gain. The trail was mostly snow covered with well packed snow. We found it slippery and used microspikes for traction. We also used our snowshoes once we were up at the lake to hike around where the snow was not packed down.
The trail goes through a pretty forest.

There were several small streams running that created bare dirt/rock patches along the trail.

The snow got deeper, the higher the trail climbed.

 There were a couple of breaks through the trees where we could see nearby hills.
















First look at Heather Lake between the trees.

Pano of Heather Lake from the northeast shore

 We snowshoed over towards the far southern shore, being careful to watch for small streams and ponds hiding under the snow.












There were some large snow covered boulders on the south shore.

Pano from the south shore. We did not see a safe place to cross the water on the south side, and did not want to go up the steep slopes behind the lake.

 We continued back the way we came, then continued across a bridge over the outlet to the lake..

Pano from the northwest shore of Heather Lake.

 Some snow laden trees: