In the long and drawn out process of sculpting and shaping the Rocky Mountains, occasionally a glacier would wind up getting stuck in a spot, with the ultimate result being the formation of a glacial lake. Judging by the number of such lakes I came upon while out and about in the Rockies, I suspect that this wasn't an especially uncommon occurrence. While they may look nice and refreshing, most of them are a bit on the cooler side and wouldn't make for the best swimming holes. From the way the fly fishermen act, they seem to be pretty good for that however...
Lakes ain't the only bodies of water in the Rockies, all that snowmelt makes for some swift rivers and sundry streams. This second photo is from near the alluvial fan in Rocky Mountain National Park. The alluvial fan was created when a dam on one of those rivers failed and sent a rush of water and boulders downhill, when it reached the flat land in the photo it spread out and lost a little of its force, leaving tons of the heavier boulders behind.
I'd meant this to be all reflections photos but I go off on tangents too much...the photo above is a bit of the alluvial fan mentioned previously. Getting back to the original focus of this post, here's another glacial lake in the Rockies!
I don't know what it is about reflections that make them such a popular photo subject, maybe it's the symmetry? Sometimes my plans to shoot lakes go awry, in this last photo I'd went to shoot Lily Lake at the same time as a cloud decided to pay a visit. There's still a reflection in there somewhere but if I didn't know what I was looking at already I'd be hard pressed to tell you what this photo is of.