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Bear Lake | Area Description
Bear Lake is inRocky Mountain National ParkNortheast of Rocky Mountain is the most popular area in the Rocky Mountain Attractions Area, with many beautiful hiking trails. Many people come to Rocky Mountain just for a day trip to Bear Lake, which is quite close to Estes Park, the busiest town next to the entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, and you can drive to Bear Lake through the Beaver Meadows entrance, and the scenic road is on the way to the Bear Lake Trailhead. On the way to Bear Lake Trailhead is the scenic roadBear Lake RoadIn the fall, the colors are beautiful. Or you can stay at Estes Park and take the free shuttle bus to Bear Lake Station.
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Trails | Bear Lake Trailhead
If you want to explore the best of the Bear Lake area, your first stop is at the Bear Lake Trailhead, which is directly accessible by free shuttle bus. If you are driving, be aware that the area is very popular and the parking lot may be full, so it's best to arrive early in the morning. After walking to the Trailhead, you can see the signs leading to the main attractions of Bear Lake. The recommended route includes the Bear Lake Trail on the right, which circles around Bear Lake. If you have more than two hours to spare, you can go to the left, where you can see the four lakes from a single 2-mile trail.
Attractions | Bear Lake
We first went to the right to Bear Lake, a 0.6 mile bear lake trail that goes around the lake. It is an easy trail, although there is a little bit of slope up and down, but basically the whole course is gentle, so men and women of all ages can walk through it easily.
Halfway through the walk, we realized that the direction we walked was counterclockwise, most people go clockwise around the circle, in fact, clockwise about 0.2 mile will be a great viewpoint, the difference between the back of the lake is not too big, if you are in a hurry, you can walk directly 0.2 mile back to the head. However, the trail around the lake is actually not long, and all the way there are autumn colors, snow-capped mountains and forests, and before you know it, you have finished walking 0.6 miles.
Attractions | Nymph Lake
If you still have time after walking through Bear Lake, it is recommended to go back to the beginning of the trailhead and continue walking to the left side of the trail. This trail is a bit longer, the distance is 2.2 miles one way, but all the way from Nymph Lake to Emerald Lake, you will pass by four beautiful lakes. The trail is slightly more difficult than Bear Lake, about medium, with about 200 ft of climbing between each lake. It's not that difficult, but please note that because of the higher elevation, you may be more out of breath than usual, but it's not a problem to finish it slowly.
The first lake we encountered was Nymph Lake, which felt like a big lotus pond. We took a break here to have a picnic and enjoy the blue sky and fall colors.
Scenic Spot | Dream Lake
From Nymph Lake, the trail continues up towards Dream Lake, the second lake. The trail gets prettier and prettier as you go up, and this whole section has always struck me as a landscape that is similarly less glacial.Glacier National Park(used form a nominal expression)Iceberg TrailQuite beautiful.
From here the slope began to become steeper, although I think it is not difficult to walk, but encountered a foot sprained by the back of the tourists down the mountain also saw the tourists fell into the water, perhaps the beauty of the moment was attracted to the attention of the loss of vigilance, to remind everyone to pay attention to their feet.
Dream Lake is a big lake, when there is a lot of water, it looks like there should be a waterfall, but there wasn't one when we came here. Looking at the beautiful U-shaped valley and the green lake in front of us, I was quite satisfied.
Attractions | Emerald Lake
Continuing upward for another 200 ft, the next stop was Emerald Lake, the trail was quite steep with a lot of stairs to climb, and the elevation was even higher, close to 9939 ft, so we were all a bit out of breath, so we had to regulate our breathing. Even though I stayed in the park the night before, my body is still not fully adapted to the high altitude.
Emerald Lake, at first glance, looks a bit similar to the mountains behind Dream Lake, but the color of the lake is more beautiful like emerald. It is windy around the lake, so be careful with your footsteps.
Attractions | Haiyaha Lake
To get to Haiyaha Lake, you have to take the fork road to Emerald Lake. If you want to get to Haiyaha Lake, you have to add 1.2 miles to your round trip. This 1.2 miles is a little bit harder than the previous trail, so there are fewer tourists on weekdays. The fall colors along the way are not bad. When we came here, Ranger strongly recommended that we must see Haiyaha Lake in these few days. He said that because of the recent landslide in the mountains, the color of the lake turned into milk color, which is very special.
On the trail to Haiyaha Lake, you can see the two lakes at the bottom, Nymph Lake on the right and Bear Lake on the left.
Finally, we arrived at Hayiyaha Lake, and it was really a very special milky green color. It is not easy to get close to the lake, you have to climb over the rock formation in order to get to the edge of the lake to capture the view, it is quite hard to go back and forth, but it is worth the effort. If you don't have such a beautiful color, you may skip it.
Glacier Gorge | Alberta fall
Then we went to Glacier Gorge, which is another bigger station in this area besides Bear Lake Trailhead, and can be reached by shuttle bus. If you are driving, please note that there are only 5 parking spaces here, which is even more inconvenient than the Bear Lake Trailhead.
The fall color on the trail is more beautiful than the Bear Lake Trail, the first place on that day, and all the places we passed along the way are at the peak of autumn. We have already walked nearly 10 miles, so we came here to walk to Alberta Falls, 1.2 miles, if you want to go farther, this trail can go to Mills Lake, it should be a very good destination. To be frank, the trail is not difficult at all, the uphill is quite gentle, but we had already walked too much in front of us, so we had no strength, but the beautiful scenery along the way supported us all the way.
Finally, I reached Alberta Falls, the upstream Glacier Creek came crashing down, the waterfall was more spectacular than I expected.
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