Weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park

Boulder and the surrounding area seems to be very secretive about camping spots. Without any insider information about the hidden gems, back in April I made plans to take a backpacking trip in Rocky Mountain National Park. Aside from the administrative hassles you have to deal with when you're working with the National Park Service - permit reservations, processing fees, required bear canister, apparently having to pick up your permit by 10am (oops! we lucked out with our late arrival this time) - backpacking in Rocky Mountain is pretty awesome.

We planned to start at Bear Lake and hike about 5 miles down to Odessa Lake on Friday night, but the ranger told us that this year's record snowfall made it difficult to get through. So instead, we parked Gladys at the Fern Lake trailhead.

Day 1 Route

There was some snowpack when we got up closer to the lake, which sits at just over 10,000 feet, but the hike wasn't overly strenuous, even in the drizzly weather. It's hard to get a permit for Odessa Lake - when I reserved back in April, every Saturday night for the entire summer was booked. But it was worth it to have one of just two sites situated right next to the beautiful alpine lake, with a stunning view of Notchtop Mountain reflecting off the water.



View of Odessa Lake from the site, Notchtop Mtn to the right



It was a chilly night, but very comfortable for sleeping in a tent with a good sleeping pad and bag (mine is rated for 30F, and I was toasty). After cooking some breakfast on my trusty MSR Superfly, we hit the trail. Against the advice of the [overly cautious] ranger at the backcountry office, we decided to try for Bear Lake, or at least Lake Helene. About halfway to Lake Helene, we had crossed a couple of wide snow fields, and we ran into another hiker who came down from Bear Lake. The former park ranger warned us of one snow field and a dangerous chute between us and Lake Helene.



Day 2 route



It turns out the chute was pretty dangerous. We walked across a very steep slope of soft snow. As I approached a tree in the middle, I was just getting my right foot on the trunk when my left foot sunk into the snow. It took a minute of assessment with one leg above my head and most of my body buried under the huge drift, but I managed to scoot myself up and hurry across the rest of the chute, avoiding death. The rest of the hike to Lake Helene was pretty easy and uneventful, although we managed to lose the trail in the snow a few times.



After making it through the worst of the hike







Lake Helene



Bear Lake was a little disappointing, with so many tourists. And after having spent some time isolated in the woods, the sight of a busy parking lot was a little disconcerting. We decided to hike up to Bierstadt Lake for lunch to get away from the crowds (after snacking on some of our ridiculously addictive trail mix, recipe to come). Bierstadt Lake was absolutely beautiful and turned out to be a great spot to spend some time relaxing. It's only about 2 miles from Bear Lake, so we weren't in isolation, but there were significantly fewer people (and screaming little kids).



Bierstadt Lake

After hanging out for a little while, we hiked up to our site at Upper Mill Creek Basin and spent the afternoon poking around the area, exploring the creek, and relaxing at the campsite. The scenery was a lot different that at Odessa Lake, but it was very cool to camp right next to the creek and hear the rushing water at night.

Mill Creek

After a long, refreshing night's sleep, we headed back to the Fern Lake trailhead to reunite with Gladys. We hiked up past Cub Lake then along a surprisingly swift winding river through a meadow. We ascended for a while coming out of Mill Creek Basin, but other than that the trail was mostly flat and very scenic.



Day 3 Route



Cub Lake



We were back to Gladys by 10:30am, so we were back in Boulder in time to have brunch at the Walnut Cafe and I even had time and energy to go for a nice trail run in the evening (and got caught in a sweet lightning storm!).

Nothing too epic, but all in all, a very solid weekend!