Nestled along the eastern side of Rocky Mountain National Park, Mills Lake sits at the top of Glacier Gorge just shy of 10,000 feet in elevation.    Accessible via a 2-hour hike that starts at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead, the route takes you past both Alberta Falls and Glacier Falls before finally reaching the lake.   It's just 3 miles north of Longs Peak; about a mile and a half west of Boulder Brook Campground; and about 9 miles south of Estes Park.

The view in this illustration is from the north end of the lake looking south toward Pagoda Mountain.    Although I've never seen this kind of cloud formation over the lake before, I simply couldn't resist taking advantage of how it might look to have an enormous thunderhead climbing over those steep mountains and diving down into the narrow valley.