Alpine silence

This is Middle Fork Lake which sits high above Red River, NM.  It is a beautiful spot as you can see.  We had decided to spend the day hiking up to Middle Fork, which is about a 2 hour hike one way.  There are great trails to walk on and some nice views along the way, including a great waterfall which I will share soon.  We had our backpacks full of lunch and drinks so we headed out.  After what seemed like an eternity, we thought we were almost there.  We met a hiker coming down, and asked her if we were getting close, and she said "yeah, only about 8 more switchbacks".  What?  8 more?  Well, we finally made it and were rewarded with this beautiful scene.  The nice thing was that the lake was essentially deserted - very few hikers that day.  So there was this awesome silence, just the wind rustling the trees and these great clouds drifting by.  I cruised around snapping a bunch of pictures, we lunched and rested, and headed home.