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The Bear Lake trailhead (the start of this hike) has
a huge parking lot, but it's often full. A sign at the Park and Ride down the
road tells you
if it's full. The Park and Ride lot is massive for a park, so you shouldn't
have any problems finding a space there. We parked and took the shuttle bus (which
runs every 10 or 15 minutes). Note that the Moraine Park shuttle bus also
stops here, but goes in the opposite direction (to the campground, and runs
every half hour).
The shuttle bus went up the road, stopping at the Bierstadt Lake trailhead and
then the Alberta Falls trailhead before stopping at the top, the Bear Lake
trailhead. The entire trip only takes about 15 minutes. When we got there,
we saw that the parking lot was 99% full. I think I saw one empty
parking space.
Giant trailhead parking lot
We crossed the bridge at the start and turned left, then took the right fork to
head up the trail (the left fork goes to Alberta Falls, which we'd visit via a
slightly different route the next day). The trail starts climbing immediately,
and we witnessed several groups of hikers head uphill for a minute or two before
thinking better of it and turning around. This is a very busy trailhead and you'll
see lots of people who aren't used to hiking.
Supposedly Nymph Lake is a half mile from the trailhead, but it seemed even closer.
We reached it quickly and took a short five minute break to enjoy the views of lily
pads in the small lake. It's surrounded on most sides by forest, but there's a
small clearing near the far end. The sun played hide and seek behind the clouds while
we watched a steady stream of hikers pass in each direction.
Nymph Lake
Nymph Lake
Hiking up the trail past Nymph Lake
We then continued along the trail, heading up past the lake. Here we started to
see patches of snow (at around 9600 feet elevation). By the time we reached
larger Dream Lake, about 0.6 miles later, there were large swaths of snow, some of which
we had to walk over. It was all pretty slushy and melting fast.
View of the mountains past Nymph Lake
Dream Lake
There were too many people at the near end of the lake, so we walked a little further
up the trail and found a nice rocky area next to the lake and settled down for lunch.
There are great views here of the mountains to the west of the lake. It's a beautiful
setting, with trees and rocks rimming the lake and snow-covered mountains (Hallett
Peak and Flattop Mountain) behind it. The lake also seems to be popular with fly
fishermen, as we saw at least a couple standing in the water, casting.
Dream Lake
Dream Lake
After a long lunch stop we decided to continue along the trail, which traces the
northern shore of the lake and then shortly reaches Emerald Lake. This lake is
larger than Nymph Lake as well, and probably a bit smaller than Dream Lake. In
my mind, it's not as pretty a setting as Dream Lake, as it is backed up against
the mountains and most of its sides are steep, loose gravel. On the other hand,
it was much more peaceful here. While dozens of people enjoyed Dream Lake, we only
saw a half dozen people at once at Emerald Lake, and for a few minutes we had the
entire lake to ourselves. Unfortunately, the geography of the lake means that
any people you do share Emerald Lake with will all be next to you, whereas you can
find a relatively private spot at Dream Lake, even if there are dozens of people there.
Emerald Lake
Tree at Emerald Lake
While we were there the clouds started to move in and it started to sprinkle. We
heard distant thunder and quickly packed up and started our return trip. Afternoon
thunderstorms are apparently very common in Colorado, as we witnessed one almost every
day of our trip. We quickly hiked downhill back past the lakes, but the rain eventually
stopped and never got to be more than a light drizzle.
Elk foraging next to the trail
On our way back we passed close by a female elk, with hikers gathered around taking
pictures. When we finally reached the trailhead, instead of ending our hike, we walked
the couple hundred feet to the left to reach Bear Lake, which is larger than any of
the other lakes we had visited today. There's a wheelchair accessible trail to a
wooden viewing
platform at Bear Lake. Since it's right next to the trailhead, it's probably not someplace
you'd want to visit for a picnic. There's also a 0.5 mile trail that circles the lake.
We didn't take that trail this time, however, opting to turn around and head back to the
trailhead, where a shuttle bus was waiting to take us back down to the Park and Ride.
Bear Lake
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