Marguerite Falls, Black Pool, and Raspberry Park via Fern Lake th.

Last week I set out for several destinations that are all in close proximity to one of the busiest trails in the park, but all of which seem to get very little visitation.  For reference, I could find only one photo of Marguerite Falls online, and none of either Black Pool or Raspberry Park.  While Raspberry Park is a bit of a slog, Marguerite Falls sits no more than one tenth of a mile from Fern Lake, while Black Pool is a rather tenuous half a mile from the Fern Lake trail itself.  

Of course there is no trail to any of these destinations, but the mountains are about exploration, right?  Some effort can be rewarded by leaving the crowds behind and sitting at the base of a beautiful waterfall all by yourself.  Or enjoying a snack while sitting on a boulder overlooking what has to be one of the tiniest named bodies of water in the park. 

Early morning on the Fern Lake trail.
The first few miles are rather mellow, with very little elevation gain up until The Pool.  From here, things take a turn uphill.  The next thing you will come to is...

Fern Falls.  Which is a pretty cool waterfall that is right off the trail.  If you have the desire to go to Black Pool, you will head north when the Fern Lake trail makes the first switchback turn left- Fern Lake is located at the next switchback after that.

But before that, I came upon these ants on the trail.  Just sitting there in deep communication with each other.  I could even touch them with no reaction.  It was strange.

Fern Lake with Joe Mills Mountain on the left, Notchtop center, and Little Matterhorn (mostly in shade) to the right of that.
From here it is relatively easy to navigate down to Marguerite Falls.  Simply follow the exit creek from the lake.  It looked and seemed like there was a little bit of a social trail on either side of the creek, but that proved to not be true.  The bushwhack was on, and it does get a bit thick at times.

But the falls aren't that far away, certainly obtainable in fifteen to twenty minutes.  And of course, it is less of a waterfall and more of a cascade, but there you have it.  When facing downstream, I started on the right side of the creek and crossed to the left when I could.  It may be easier to just stay on the left. 

A little farther down.
I kept going down along the creek just in case that wasn't it, to make sure I'd been there.  But this was the only thing that looked remotely like a waterfall.  

I did come across the ruins of a small wooden cabin.  There was nothing left but boards and some very large nails.  In this photo, you can still see a stack of firewood that stood outside of it beginning in the lower left corner.
Rather than go back up from here, I simply oriented myself to the north/northwest, and went in that general direction until I hit the trail.  Movement became much easier, and I soon found myself at Fern Falls for the second time of the day.

Fern Falls, rainbow!
I followed the trail down until it took a sharp right, and then found a place to move down the steep and at times loose hill to Spruce Creek.  I crossed the creek atop a fallen log, and then made my way up a forested dirt and talus slope.  

It took me quite a bit of time to figure out I was looking at Gabletop and Castle Rock here.  

Fern Falls can be seen through the forest almost dead center here.
I found that I'd veered too far east, and was on top of the domed granite features to the east of point 9246.  You want to be on the bench between those areas.  So I traversed west until things flattened out.

I made my way up one final gully.  And....

Black Pool was sighted.  The name is fitting.  While the water is not quite black, it is definitely a darker hue reminiscent of the Cedar Water I fondly remember from my younger days in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey.  The pool has no inlet or outlet, and the color comes from decaying vegetative matter in the lake.  There looked to be a thick layer of this black matter at the bottom of this tiny body of water.  It is maybe 2 feet deep in the center, and sports a few lily pads and a wealth of grasses around and in the lake.  

I had a snack sitting atop the rock bench on the right.  What an amazing and wonderful place to be.  

Reflections...

The only foot prints I could see were from Elk.

I walked around Black Pool, took it all in.  As I've often said, it is destinations such as this that my heart truly seeks.  I love just being out here in the middle of no where, seeing and hearing no sign of anyone else.
I headed northwest, paralleling the Big Thompson River up Forest Canyon.  As with my last experience here, travel got tough.  The bushwhacking is thick and steady, not only pushing through trees and chest high brush, but making your way over fallen trees, rock, and marsh.   

I occasionally stumbled over signs that at least someone else had once come this way.  I found a cairn here and there, though what trail they may have been marking is beyond me. 

I also found a bunch of old rusty cans from who knows when.  I couldn't see any markings on them, but it was interesting to still be able to see the tool marks from them being opened.

The one thing that may have made travel slightly easier was going through part of the Fern Lake fire area.  But moving through what was essentially charcoal left me absolutely filthy.  I was dirtier than I can ever remember being. 

More fire area.  The bushwhacking was less intense at times, but you can see that I was moving over talus!

I was looking at the topo to try to figure out how much farther I had to go.  I could see opposite where treeline was, and that looked like it was about where I should meet Lost Brook and find Raspberry Park.  I felt I would come to Lost Brook very soon, though I'd already passed a few small streams. 

I found two small creeks close to each other, both this one...

And this one. 

And this one looked to be big enough to be named.  Raspberry Park is so named for the tons of wild raspberry plants growing in the area.  Unfortunately, they were not yet in season!  Oh well. 
Though I thought I was there, again just to make sure, I kept going.  I made it out of the fire area and into the bush.  It was just as thick as I remembered.  About an hour later I hadn't hit another creek coming down from Stones Peak.  I decided that the creek I thought was Lost Brook, was indeed Lost Brook.  Back I went.

Back in the forest fire area, I looked for a place to take a quick dip in the Big Thompson.  Here I found a small eddy that looked deep enough to hold me.  In I went.  It was freezing, but the water felt good after sweating all day.
On the way back, I stayed a little bit higher up on Stones Peak.  This saw me hit some areas of 100% tree fall and have to deal with that, walk on talus that was quite loose and shifting under me at time, and still have some bushwhacking to do.  Then I started to see a cairn here and there and the faint outlines of a long ago trail.

In the name of exploration, I decided to follow the trail remnants for as long as I could.  In the end, it seemed to dissolve into nothing, though it was pretty well cairned for quite awhile.  But with no point a or point b, it is hard to call this a trail. 

It did take me by multiple wild strawberry plants.  And I ate heavily!  While tiny, they are so delicious.  They taste as if you'd shrunk a normal sized strawberry down and in the process, concentrated the flavors.  I will be on the look out for these in the future!
The trail ended up leading me to the west side of point 9249.  I decided it was easiest to avoid the steep slope to the south of point 9249 and just descended the more mellow drainage I was in.  Once I met Spruce Creek, I headed downhill for a little bit before finding another nice log to cross the creek on. 

I took this photo from below.  While I was trying to get a good one to give you some idea of where to go, it was difficult to do so through the forest.  But here see point 9249 on the left of the photo, behind the tree.  The granite domes are to the right.  So you'll want to aim between these to find Black Pool.

Along the trail on the way back, I looked up to see Windy Gulch Cascades.  Here is a view from the top.
Back at the car, I got unpacked and went back to the Big Thompson to scrub my hands off.  Even with that wash up, the rest of me was covered in soot, bug bites (I saw the largest mosquito of my life in Forest Canyon and briefly wondered if Pterodactyls weren't truly extinct), scratches, some of which were bleeding.  I bent both of my hiking poles.  Got a huge blister on my left pinky toe.  Forest Canyon will chew you up and spit you out.  It is one of the truly wild places in the park, with few signs of humanity, and no trails.  Thus, it is fairly difficult to navigate, but you are very likely to be the only person around.  Enjoy the peace and solitude brought by this magical place in the depths of nature.
Marguerite Falls, Black Pool, and Raspberry Park via Fern Lake th:
Marguerite Falls, 9420 feet: 3.9 miles one way, 1270 foot gain.  Moderate.
Black Pool, 9060 feet: 2.9 miles one way, 910* foot gain.  Moderate+.
Raspberry Park, 9000 feet: 4.1 miles one way, 850* foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Along the way, you will also pass:
Fern Lake, 9540 feet: 3.8 miles one way, 1390 foot gain.  Moderate.
Fern Falls, 8800 feet: 2.6 miles one way, 650 foot gain.  Moderate-.
The Pool, 8300 feet: 1.7 miles one way, 150 foot gain.  Easy.
Arch Rocks, 8220 feet: 1.2 miles one way, 70 foot gain.  Easy-. 
Hike total: 10.5 miles round trip, 2400 feet gross elevation gain.  Strenuous-. 
*= Though there is not much net gain to reach these places, there is some up and down along the way that will add a few hundred feet of elevation gain to these totals. 

Spruce Lake in the winter.

I started off solo this week, shortly after seven AM at the Fern Lake trail head.  Getting here was a little bit of an adventure.  I didn't think much of the 1/8 inch of new snow covering the roads in RMNP since I could see that others had been before me.  But as I braked to turn right into Moraine Park, I started to slide.  I let off the brake but my front wheels had engaged enough that I started to turn.  I ended up sliding right off the road.  Fortunately, there weren't any rocks or trees for me to hit, and I was able to turn right and after some wiggling make it back on the road and continue on.

It was 25 degrees when I started, but the day already felt warm.  There isn't much gain on the way to The Pool, but shortly after I took my winter jacket off and made most of the way up in long sleeves only.

Arch Rocks are on the way to The Pool.  A pretty cool place to stop and look around.  Maybe you'll even see some professional climbers out in the wild.

The Pool in winter.  In warmer months it looks like this.

I didn't really notice much effect from the Fern Lake fire.  I could smell it for sure, but only saw some burn area here and there.  It was alot easier to tell on the way back down when some of the snow had melted.

After The Pool, you reach Fern Falls.  It is right off the trail (on your left) at a prominent switchback.  Of course this time of year it's frozen.

Some of the burn area is visible in the background here.

Fern Lake with Mt. Wuh in the background.  While looking quite spectacular in the winter, it probably looks just as good in the summer.

Framed by trees.

Higher points in the background.
I had a snack here and then went back down the trail to get to the Spruce Lake trail.  Up until now I hadn't put my snowshoes on.  It looked like someone had been up to Spruce Lake since I could see a depression in the snow, however I soon lost this and made my own way.  Ahh, the joys of breaking trail...
Of course with no trail to follow it was navigation time.  I stopped several times on my way up to look at a map and make sure I was going the right way.  Aided by identifying several of the higher peaks, I went on, though I stayed up too high and had to drop down to the lake in the end.   

The aptly named Castle Rock as seen from Spruce Lake. 

Castle Rock and Stones Peak.  I ate again here.  I decided to see what the conditions were like to try to head up to Loomis Lake. 

Onward!

Or back the way I'd come?

This time, things actually looked better the closer I got. 

But as I started up the slope the snow started falling heavier, and the snow beneath my feet was deep.  I actually dug all the way down to the earth below to assess the snow pack.  I could see about two feet that looked like the typical icy spring time melt, with maybe a foot of powder atop.  This along with the slope being steep enough to avalanche, led to me turn back.  But at least I wasn't seeing slabs forming.

I'll be back!
I took my snow shoes off after rearriving at Fern Lake.  On my way down, I could definitely feel the snow was melting- my hiking poles went in farther and were harder to pull out, with wet snow often clinging to the tops of the buckets. 

Back at Fern Lake.

Note the deforested hills. 

A wide burn strip through the forest.  The snow was melting rapidly, and from shortly before The Pool to the entire rest of the way down, it was slush city, with up to several inches of standing water on the trail at times.
The burn area became alot easier to see with the snow melting.  There are still alot of trees standing in the immediate proximity of the trail, both Aspen and Pine.  Hopefully some of these survived.  It does look like most of the smaller ground cover type plants are gone though, which means erosion could be a problem this summer, yet I have faith the smaller plants will be back and we will see significant regrowth this year alone. 

Right next to the road.  The smell was actually kind of appealing to me- like some of my favorite Islay Scotches.  

More burn area to the south of the Fern Lake parking. 

When I got home, I made sure to rehydrate with some of this stuff!
Fern Lake was pretty fun, and not too difficult.  It would be high on my list as a recommendation for an entry level hike in the park.  Spruce Lake is probably alot more accessible in the summer months as well, with an unofficial trail right to it.  I am sure I will be back up here at some point once the snow is gone, so I can make a better judgement then.
The quickly melting snow in the afternoon helped bolster my spirits- spring is definitely coming.  I am sure some snow pack will remain at the higher altitudes, but as that starts to melt it'll get more solid.  There is no place I'd rather spend my days off, and I am very much looking forward to spending alot of time in the park this summer!
Spruce Lake in the winter:
Spruce Lake: 4.8 miles one way, 1510 foot gain (8150-9660).  Moderate in summer conditions.
Fern Lake: 3.8 miles one way, 1390 foot gain (8150-9540).  Moderate.
Fern Falls: 2.6 miles one way, 650 foot gain (8150-8800).  Moderate-.
The Pool: 1.7 miles one way, 150 foot gain (8150-8300).  Easy.
Arch Rocks: 1.2 miles one way, 70 foot gain (8150-8220).  Easy-.