For a place of significance to millions of people, the drive to the headwaters of the American West’s most coveted river is surprisingly remote and uncrowded.

Thirteen miles off Colorado State Highway 14, at the end of the unpaved Long Draw Road (National Forest System Road 156), is an unassuming marsh known as La Poudre Pass Lake.

That marsh, located just inside the northern border of Rocky Mountain National Park, is the headwaters of the mighty Colorado River. Those waters, fed by major tributaries downstream, quench the thirst of much of the southwestern U.S. and, through diversion projects, sustain eastern Colorado farms and ranches.

There is plenty of water over the high-mountain divide from Colorado’s populous Front Range. The western side of Rocky Mountain National Park includes more than a hundred lakes. The most remote are among the most scenic, carved out by glaciers, their waters reflecting the jagged peaks that remain. Trails provide moderate to difficult access, but it takes all day to reach them.

The 2020 East Troublesome and Cameron fires burned 30,000 acres of the park, about nine percent of its total area. Hikes on trails to remote park lakes lead visitors in and out of burned areas where torched trees open a wider range of views. But the snow still comes, the snowmelt flowing into lakes, streams and waterfalls.

A 300-foot-high ridge separates Lake Nokoni and Lake Nanita, in separate basins but at the same altitude – 10,780 feet – along the North Inlet Trail that begins near Grand Lake. Hikers find Nokoni first with rock slabs along its eastern shore. Another mile is the Nanita with views of Andrews Peak to the east and the Ptarmigan Mountain to the west. The two alpine lakes each offer wildflower gardens: columbine, Indian paintbrush forget-me-nots, larkspur, lupine, harebell and monkshood. These views require an eight-and-a-half hour hike up on average, gear for overnight camping and an awareness of wildlife.

The remote lakes of Rocky Mountain National Park’s west side so mesmerized a longtime park photographer, he would rise hours before daybreak to capture the sunrise on the waters. He would hike up to 10 miles with as many as three cameras and 45 pounds of gear and food in his backpack – hoping he wouldn’t encounter the animal he feared most.

“If I leave at 3 or 4 a.m. I can be at the lake at sunrise,” said James Frank of Loveland, formerly of Estes Park. “It’s dark, I’m wearing a headlamp, thinking, gee, I hope I don’t meet a moose.”

About 95 percent of the park’s 415 square miles is designated wilderness. It’s not uncommon to meet wildlife along the trails. Gray-bearded and bespectacled, Frank is all of 5 feet, 11 inches and a fit 170 pounds. A bull moose grows up to 7 feet tall and 1,600 pounds. So, when Frank encountered a bull moose on a west side trail, he took action that saved him from injury, or worse.

“The moose was 30 yards away on the trail, in a very steep section, so I went down, lower than he was, off the trail,” Frank said. “I stood behind a tree, about five to 10 yards away, and he gave me a sideways glance. ‘Dude, good thing you got out of my way,’ is what that look said to me.”

James turns 71 in October, so he’s less inclined these days to make the long hike to his favorite west side spots, Lake Nokoni and Nanita. At his age, Frank is willing to consider hiring llamas to help carry the next load.

James remembers the hike that ignited his passion for Rocky waters, back in the last days of film cameras in the 1990s. He hiked from Wild Basin, south of Estes Park, six miles west to Thunder Lake and on to Boulder-Grand Pass, where he saw sunlight gleaming from a string of pearls:  the glacially carved lakes Verna, Spirit, Fourth and Fifth.

Lately, he’s preferred a closer, fine art approach: long-exposure shots of creeks and waterfalls. He photographs the moving waters when the light is low and chooses a slow shutter speed with a two to five second exposure. The water appears as a silky blanket, flowing over the rocks and off boulders.

These west side waters continue to mesmerize hikers who trek through Rocky Mountain National Park’s remote trails. For Frank, it’s a familiar and welcome hike to visit his Rocky Mountain pearls.