Bear lake access-Rocky Mountain National Park

One of the most popular places at ROMO is the bear lake corridor which has trailheads that go to a number of alpine lakes. It is so popular in fact that we, again, could not obtain timed entry tickets and thus had to enter the park before timed entry started. At this entrance that time is… drumroll please…5 a.m. Woof is all I can say to that.

We got up and left our campsite at 4 a.m. and as we crept slowly through the open gates and morning fog we saw an almost mystical elk on the side of the road, enormous antlers and eyes illuminated briefly by our headlights was cause enough for these “watch out for deer” Michiganders to pump the brakes a minute. The big boy didn’t dash into the road though and we passed on by unscathed in our little roller skate of a rental car to the parking area at the trailhead. We were apparently not the only ones who couldn’t get timed entry as the lot was already populated by several vehicles with front seats full of dozing passengers. We watched the sun rise and the parking lot fill up as we cooked our oatmeal and coffee. After topping off our water and snacks and a quick stop at the facilities, we were ready to go.

Still slightly puffy eyed we ambled over to the trail head once it got a light enough to see without a headlamp. You may notice our hunched/chilled posture and puffy coats in July; we were in the Rockies folks. We were able to see Bear, Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes and Lake Haiyaha. Pictured above is Bear Lake. If you are looking for a nice simple stop off with easy access from the parking lot, take a peek at this one! We were really looking forward to seeing some of the iconic teal/blue alpine lakes we pictured in our mind when planning this trip. Bear lake wasn’t one of those, but we were hopeful as we went higher we would find the postcard views that we were looking for.

As we passed Nymph Lake (also not teal/blue), we took a little detour to scramble over some rocks where we saw some significantly robust plant life growing out of what appeared to be solid rock. This would prove to be a theme for our stay in the ROMO area. Eric has an affinity for bonsai and has half of his torso tattooed with one, so many of our photos inevitably end up bonsai related like this little guy pictured above.

How cute is the little bridge to cross the river? I felt like a ding dang wood nymph or something going across this idyllic wooden beam. Dream Lake, more like green lake, had lots of cutthroat trout and drew much of its color from the surrounding trees. Although I didn’t have a super duper camera with me, I was still able to grab this photo of one of the happy fishies. I love the spots, they are such a unique and beautiful creature. Although fishing is allowed in Dream Lake (with appropriate license of course), we saw no anglers on our trip. It was great to see that there was still an abundant population and it hadn’t been over fished.

The first four lakes were all in a line on this hike which was nice to be able to see a lot of different features without a lot of back tracking to go out on separate spurs. The last of the lakes in the line was Emerald Lake. Three lakes under our belt on the hike and we were still looking for that iconic teal/blue of the alpine lakes. We thought certainly with a name like Emerald Lake, this would have to be the one.

We were dead wrong! Still no icy blue, but we did hit it at exactly the right moment to get a perfectly placid reflection of the mountain peaks on the glassy surface of the lake. It was near impossible to tell what was a reflection and what was the actual mountain and sky. We couldn’t help it and had to climb up onto some rocks high above all the rest of the visitors that were starting to get a bit clogged up. Although we do visit very busy National Park’s sometimes it is totally possible to get away a little bit from the crowd if you are alright with “off-roading” a little.

Taking the path less traveled (or leaving the path altogether) allows us to get sweet pictures like this one! We scampered around on the craggy rocks like a couple of mountain goats, ate a snack from our packs and then headed back the way we came to find the spur trail out to Lake Hiyaha, our last chance for an icy blue beauty.

We did find some snow even in July, chuckled a little and moved along. Being less than two miles from the parking lot makes Emerald Lake very accessible to people of all skill and fitness levels. While that is great for some, it also means that we got to hear more children and angsty teens complaining, dragging their feet and kicking (sometimes large) rocks at passersby. When visiting our National Parks it’s always important to be prepared and aware of your surroundings, often times the humans are more trouble than the other critters. Stay safe out there my friends and watch out for kids and their hurtling rocks!

Luckily as we climbed higher towards Lake Hiyaha the crowds seemed to thin slightly. The path became quite a bit steeper on this little side quest and so not as many visitors were giving it a go which was just fine in our books.

Boy were we glad we went that way. We FINALLY found our iconic icy blue alpine lake! It was definitely worth the walk. The reason that this shade of turquoise occurs is due to glacial flour, which sounds like the most obscure ingredient for your next baking project but is actually just a part of the recipe for these beautifully colored alpine lakes. The basics are just this: glacial flour is sediment from glacial flow (glaciers grinding along bedrock) and consists of little particles of quartz and feldspar that are then suspended in the water. These are extremely fine particles, finer than table salt, which is why they stay suspended in the water instead of settling to the bottom. This also adds the sort of milky look to the water whose name also sounds like it belongs in my dad’s cornbread recipe, glacial milk. When the particles are exposed to light they scatter and reflect it in mostly green and blue wavelengths and that is what gives the water the color you see here. It’s totally a magic trick (or just science)…in the words of Levar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it!

Bonus, this absolutely amazing tree was growing right out of the rocks along the edge of this beautiful blue aquatic wonder. Not small enough to consider a bonsai but gnarly and neato nonetheless. Finding the path to get to the edge of Hiyaha was a little scattered and required some bouldering but we made it and only dropped Eric’s sunglasses into a crevice once. They were retrieved thankfully.

We began our decent back to the parking area and saw hoards of people schlepping along the trails. Once back to the lot large shuttle busses dropping off full loads of visitors were cycling through, looks like we were leaving at just the right time. It is worth noting that the park does allow free entry after 2 p.m. without a timed entry ticket but if you would like to do a lot of hiking, especially in the warmer months you might be best to go with the early morning wake up call. We proceeded down into the town of Estes Park where we rewarded ourselves with a fancy coffee and some confections and scoped out a tattoo shop for our travel souvenirs. Thanks for coming along on another great day of exploration in one of our national treasures.