Explorer Blog - Diving Alpine Lakes Colorado Treasure Hunting

Brought to Surface

High up in the Rocky Mountains there are inumberable small lakes fed by the melting winter snows. Many of these lakes are difficult to reach, in remote wilderness areas, and are not often explored for this reason. We packed our bags high into the mountains, loaded with snorkeling gear, to discover what these lakes were hiding beneath the surface.

There was very little alive in these lakes. Absent were the weeds usually found coating the bottom of any body of freshwater. Instead we found either bottoms of broken rocky rubble from nearby cliffs, or a thick layer of silt sparsely populated with colonies of bacteria growing in coral-like structures. The frigid water and barren rock surroundings seemed to limit the resources required by many species found at lower elevations. In that regard the alpine lakes were similar to caves; their energy input seemed to low to support much life. Although instead of lacking sunlight, these lakes lacked much of what would normally run-off the surrounding landscape.

Still many of these lakes supported life in another way: they were a good place for olden day prospectors to set up camps when mining the nearby mountains for gold and silver. We found a great deal of evidence of these encampments both above and below the waves. Artifacts, submerged for over a century, were discovered easily without water plants and algal growth to obscure our vision underwater.

While climbing into the mountains each day it was easy to imagine that today, just moments from now even, today would would be the big haul. That when I'd dive down beneath the surface a rotting sack or mason jar would catch my eye and pulling it from the muck I'd see a teasing gleam of hidden gold. That this time a lost treasure would change my life forever. Although our methods differ a great deal, I suspect those miners a century ago wandered these mountain paths lost in the same reverie.

Found: An old suspenders buckle and a shirt button.