Snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park
Directions: Passing the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center, take your first left onto Bear Lake Road. Continue for 9 miles until the road dead-ends at the Bear Lake trailhead.
Description: There are several trails that branch out of Bear Lake Trailhead. Bear Lake is only 0.5 miles round trip of easy to moderate trail conditions. Taking the left hand trail will lead you up to Dream Lake and beyond.
Use: Snowshoeing, cross country skiing, hiking, backpacking, NO DOGS
You never quite know what to expect with our Colorado weather, in Loveland it was bright and sunny with temperatures breaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Even Estes Park only had a few clouds dappling the clear blue sky. The mountains however, were another story....
By the time we reached the trailhead at Bear Lake we had temperatures in the teens and wind blowing so hard, your face was raw with cold in seconds. The weather of course, begged the age old saying, you can never be too prepared. I was grateful we had brought extra clothes for the trip and once we were bundled up and strapped in, we hit the trail in our snowshoes.
The upside of the chilly weather was that for the majority of the trip the trees blocked the wind and the scenery was crisp and brazen, resilient in its quest to survive yet another winter. Bear Lake is a short 0.5 Mile round trip and we would looking for a little more on this particular afternoon. We chose to head left on the trail towards Nymph Lake and then on further to Dream Lake.
The trail is consistently uphill until it plateaus at Nymph Lake. Unable to find the trail around the lake with all the blowing snow we simply went over the top and headed for Dream Lake. It was after Nymph Lake that the trail becomes a little more strenuous and much smaller. You are also more exposed as you climb the mountain side and the blowing snow covered your tracks in minutes. It was here you could feel the power of nature, raw and indifferent to the human hand, a space all its own.
It was a perfect trip and we enjoyed every minute, even the few minutes it took us to thaw out. We were able to make it to Dream Lake but turned around shortly after. The wind was brutal and unforgiving without the coverage of the trees and landscape. The entire trip took us an hour and a half, every step as refreshing as the last and the challenge we were looking for. If you haven't tried snowshoeing before, give it a go! Life's too short to sit on the sidelines!
