When my brothers were here recently, Charles and I bought a National Park Pass since the Rocky Mountains are so close! Spring was coming and we knew it’d be one be one of our last chances to hike in the snow, so at the end of April, we decided to head back to the Rockies for one last winter hike at Emerald Lake Trail!
Rocky Mountain National Park
The drive into the Rockies is one that we’ve taken many times, as Estes Park is at the base of the Rockies, and only ~45 minutes away. We’ve become quite accustomed to seeing Elk roaming around and this time was no different! It never gets old, though! While the weather was warming up in Boulder, it was still snowy in the mountains, which makes it just so beautiful.
Emerald Lake
Emerald Lake trail is a moderately difficult, 3 mile, out and back hike. We arrived to Bear Lake Trailhead around noon and it was surprisingly busy. Bear Lake is the starting point for a couple of trails, but the trail we took was still pretty populated. We saw a lot of cross country skiers and many hikers had on their snow shoes. Charles and I opted for our microspikes, which worked out very well.
Emerald Lake Trail passes along 3 lakes with the final being Emerald Lake. All 3 lakes were still quite frozen, so we were able to walk across them! On the first lake, I got to make my first snow angel in Colorado! On the second lake, we saw a couple getting wedding pictures taken, and on Emerald Lake, we saw 2 proposals! It was quite magical! (It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but all of them are lakes!)
When we got to Emerald Lake, we decided to do a bit off-trail hiking and climb up the mountain. A couple of people climbed up the mountain and slid back down the mountain, but we decided that it was probably more fun to watch than to actually do!
The views from up high were really gorgeous on this snowy day. We both look forward to going back to the hike in the summer and seeing the differences in the trails and scenery. While sad to see the end of winter hiking, we are looking forward to experiencing both old and new trails in our first summer in Colorado!
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