Researchers are getting closer to understanding the complex, mysterious phenomenon that creates one of the most iconic scenes in Colorado’s mountains.

“We really don’t know much about the specific sources of water that spills from Spouting Rock above Hanging Lake,” Eagle-Holy Cross District Ranger Leanne Veldhuis explained in a recent news release. The 2020 Grizzly Creek fire and resulting debris flows “highlighted the need for the (U.S. Forest Service) to better understand the hydrology of the area,” she said.

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Water-tracing specialists with Missouri-based Ozark Underground Laboratories were contracted to find answers surrounding the popular destination. 

In a progress report, they recognized the fire’s aftermath “poses significant threats to the integrity of Hanging Lake.” They suspected debris flows from now-barren slopes could alter the travertine formations that water travels through, eventually spouting from the canyon wall as the cascades seen above the lake.

Those travertine formations — limestone deposited from underground mineral springs — commonly define caves, researchers explained in the report.

“However,” they wrote, “travertine deposition above ground requires a unique combination of physical and chemical conditions, and travertine features as large as those forming Hanging Lake are rare and quite extraordinary.”

The first order of business was determining Hanging Lake’s origin waters. From dropping dye at several streams and following the content to the lake, researchers determined a source: the upper, western reaches of Deadhorse Creek.

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On a straight line, the distance between there and Hanging Lake is roughly 5 1/2 miles and 2,520 feet, according to the report. That begs the question for researchers: What all is happening in that space between?

“Results from the 2021 dye traces have answered some questions, but have also left much to be discovered,” they concluded in the report.

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They plan to continue investigating, partly with the help of local cavers.

Read the full report here: https://bit.ly/3yCzUJE