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While steep, the route is an enjoyable one, with good places to pause and take stock of the impressive canyon – there are also handrails on the tougher sections. The lake itself has a boardwalk with information panels and is a stunning place. Tangled branches, mossy limestone cliffs and tumbling falls frame the turquoise pool, and communities of hanging plants dangle down around its edge.
You can’t swim or fish here, but a trail connects the lake with Spouting Rock, where icy water rushes through a hole in the rock, spraying walkers as they pass.
Iyake Lake
There’s only one other suspended lake in the world – Iyake Lake in southwest Nigeria. Set near the town of Ado Awaye, around a four-hour drive north of Lagos, this mountaintop lake has great views and a number of legends associated with it – including that it was once a woman, and that it can answer spiritual questions.
There are other sights to see on the five-hour hike to the lake and back. The Elephant Tree is – as you might have guessed – a tree that looks like an elephant, and the Esè Àwon Àgbà are large footprint-shaped holes associated with long-gone giants. The route climbs through woodland and bare rock, with steps cut into the stone and soil in places. Iyake Lake’s water level never seems to change, despite the variations in rainfall, and it’s forbidden to swim here.
Lakes at the top of the world
Hanging Lake and Iyake Lake may be the world’s only suspended lakes, but there are alpine lakes in regions around the world (the distinction between the two kinds of lakes isn’t always clear). Alpine lakes, like Hanging Lake, are often clear, due to the cooler mountain water, which inhibits algae growth. They tend to form in depressions caused by high-altitude glacial erosion, or craters left by volcanoes.
Famous examples include Crater Lake in Oregon, which at 1,949ft (594m) is the the USA’s deepest, Lake Kawaguchi near Mount Fuji in Japan, which is a popular tourist attraction, and Lake Titicaca, the huge, 12,500ft-high (3,810m) Andean lake that’s home to Inca ruins.
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Source link : https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/colorado/articles/colorados-remarkable-hanging-lake
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Publish date : 2021-07-22 03:00:00
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