Hiking the Rocky Mountain National Park - Part II

The Bear Lake Trails at Rocky Mountain National Park get busy early. Save yourself the headache and park at Estes Park Visitor Center. Take the free shuttle and enjoy the views and hikes. They are worth it!

For day two of hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park we wanted to check out the popular Bear Lake Corridor Trails. These trails take you around Bear Lake and then up to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake. There is also a trail to Alberta Falls. Four lakes and waterfall in this area of the park, no wonder these are the most popular trails! The park gets almost 5 million visitors a year, half of which are in the summer months.

Bear Lake Corridor Trails

We knew that parking fills up early and by the time we arrived, just before 9 AM on a weekday, we were too late. We had to turn around, and so began our adventure! We drove ten miles back into town to the Estes Park Visitor Center. From there, free park shuttles took us into the park to the Park & Ride on Bear Lake Road. Then we boarded a different park shuttle that stops along the trailheads on Bear Lake Road. They also happened to be repaving Bear Lake Road this day so it was down to one lane for both ways and we were told there could be up to a twenty minute delay once you got on that shuttle. Luckily our delay was only around ten minutes and then we were on our way.

The Bear Lake Loop was a quick and easy walk around the beautiful Bear Lake. The hike up to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake was a little more difficult but not too strenuous. Everything was so pretty and there was still snow in July! We had to cross snow on some parts of the trail, I couldn’t believe it. Even though these trails were busy they were wide enough that people could walk up and down at the same time. Only in a few narrow areas did you need to wait until people had past.

Alberta Falls

After our hike to all four lakes, we had our picnic lunch and then decided to hike down to Alberta Falls. This was another great hike with a beautiful waterfall at the end. After that I suggested we hike towards Sprague Lake and then catch the shuttle at the Bierstadt stop. This was not one of the hikes the volunteer at the Visitor Center had mentioned but I didn’t think that would be an issue. Well this hike didn’t go as I hoped. It turned out to be very rocky. So much that rolling our ankles was easy as our legs were tired after two long days of hiking. We finally made it to the shuttle stop exhausted. There were lots of shuttles going up to the other trailheads, but none would stop heading down to the Park & Ride. I finally had to flag one down and even though that shuttle was packed they squeezed us and another couple on. At the Park & Ride we all piled onto the shuttle to take us back to Estes Park Visitor Center. This shuttle was so packed we both had to stand the ten mile ride back to the Visitor Center but at least we weren’t waiting for the next shuttle.

By day three we were exhausted from our two 10+mile days but we still wanted to see another part of the park so we decided for a shorter hike later in the afternoon up towards Ypsilon Lake. We didn’t hike all the way to this lake but we did enjoy our hike along the river.

It definitely takes some patience to get to the Bear Lake Trails and things might not go as smooth as you would hope, so you might be wondering was it worth it? Yes! Yes! Yes! The views are amazing and the hiking is great. The Rocky Mountain National Park is absolutely beautiful and if you have the chance to go, you should! Even during the busy season the park is large enough to accommodate the large crowds as long as you take the park shuttles to the Bear Lake Trails.

Looking for things to do in Colorado? Take a look at our Colorado articles.

Click on the panoramic picture below to see the larger image