Hanging Lake
| Hanging Lake | ||
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| Hanging Lake | ||
| Geographical location | Garfield County , Colorado , USA | |
| Tributaries | East Fork Dead Horse Creek | |
| Drain | East Fork → Dead Horse Creek → Colorado River | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 39 ° 36 '5 " N , 107 ° 11' 30" W | |
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| Altitude above sea level | 2187 m | |
The Hanging Lake is a lake in the US state of Colorado . Located in Glenwood Canyon, about seven miles east of Glenwood Springs , it is a very popular attraction. The lake is accessed via a hiking trail north of Interstate 70 that leads to the bottom of the canyon. The trail follows Dead Horse Creek, a tributary of the Colorado River , and overcomes approximately an elevation gain of 300 meters over a length of 1.9 kilometers from the start of the hike to the lake.
The first story about the discovery of the lake describes a man's search for gold in the canyon. The man found a dead horse at the opening of a mountain gorge. As he followed the course of the gorge and climbed uphill through the canyon, he came to the rear of a bowl-like lake that towered over the cliffs below on a sintered terrace .
In the following years the area served as a private country estate until it was bought by Glenwood Springs after the Taylor Bill was passed by the US Congress in 1910 .
With this purchase, the area's long history as a public attraction began; There was a resort and coffee shop there in the 1940s until construction of Interstate 70 began in 1968.
The trail and lake have been part of the White River National Forest since 1972, are under the protection of the American Forest Service, and have been an increasingly popular attraction ever since.
In 2011, Interior Minister Ken Salazar classified the lake as a National Natural Landmark .
The fragile shoreline consists of calcareous sinter , which was created by dissolved limestone from the Leadville Formation (temporally assigned to the Mississippium ), which was deposited on stones and trunks and thereby created various layers of calcareous sinter.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hanging Lake in the United States Geological Survey's Geographic Names Information System
- ^ Hanging Lake, Colorado . Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ↑ John Gardner: Hanging Lake a fragile paradise . In: Aspen Times , August 28, 2006.
- ↑ America's Great Outdoors: Secretary Salazar Designates Six New National Natural Landmarks , United States Department of the Interior . June 15, 2011.
- ^ Hanging Lake . Archived from the original on July 23, 2012.
Web links
- Hanging Lake in the National Park Service's National Natural Landmarks Directory