Another trip to Bear Lake to hike to Nymph and Dream Lakes

 On April 10th, we spent the morning at home before setting out around 11:30 to go back up into RMNP. We were headed for Bear Lake again, but this time we were doing a longer hike that potentially takes you to 3 subalpine lakes above Bear Lake. The weather was simply stunningly gorgeous, with low winds and temperatures rising the low 60's at over 9,000 feet. The trail was still covered in deep snow, but the warmer weather had started to make it slushy. As a result, hiking was more challenging because it was almost like walking in sand, but with spikes on.

The hike started at 9,475 ft. steadily climb to 9,698 ft. to reach Nymph Lake in .5 miles. While I haven't had any true altitude sickness, I still got very easily winded when hiking uphill in the slushy conditions. We took frequent short breaks to allow my breathing and heartrate to return to normal. The photo below is an example of the views that we had on the hike.

We reached Nymph Lake, which was frozen solid and covered with ice and snow.

Nymph Lake

This is a bench that we stood on take the selfie.
It was completely encased in snow.

After taking a few pictures, we continued on the hike up to the second lake, called Dream Lake. The trail got steeper and some spots were narrow as you edged around rocks. It was challenging and fun. I was very glad to have my trekking poles in addition to the spikes on my boots! As we came around one of these steeper sections, 2 guys came down off of this rock outcropping and encouraged us to climb up because the views were great. We took their advice!

We climbed up about 30 feet on top of large boulders to get some great views. This tree was growing right there in the middle of the rocks!

This Stellar's jay was hanging out up there with us. Such beautiful colors on this bird.

Panaroma of the left side of our view.

Panaroma of the right side of our view.

Close up of the Stellar's jay

Looking down on Bear Lake

Looking down on Nymph Lake

Leon, the Adventurer

We continued on to Dream Lake, which sits at 9,905 ft. This part of the hike continued to be steeper and more technical as we worked our way over/around rock outcroppings. When we reached the lake, we paused there long enough for me to eat my traditional snack, an apple. I found a new-to-me variety, called Opal. It is a hard apple, with a good crunch and sweet taste. It's my new favorite.

Dream Lake. It was interesting that it showed signs of beginning to thaw, even though it is higher than Nymph and Bear lakes, which were frozen solid.

We had broken a sweat in the warm conditions, as you can see we had shed our top layer. Still, the wind was strong and cold here as it was funneled down the U shape of the mountain behind us and across the lake.

At this point, we had been hiking for a while and we had heard that the final climb to the Emerald Lake (10,110 feet) was more challenging and the trail was less packed down. We decided to head back down. What had been physically challenging to climb up was trickier on the way down. At one point, I lost my balance on a steeper part, landed on my bum and started sliding down the trail! That would have been ok, but then I slid OFF the trail. I was lucky that there was a small pine tree that I was able to stop myself with. It was actually pretty hilarious - it all seemed to happen in slow motion.

I made quite an impression when I slid off the trail!

Leon saw the whole thing and thought it was funny, too. After that, he kept my phone just in case there were any more impressive antics to film on the way down! Instead, he only got these pictures of me as the Intrepid Adventurer.

The rest of the hike down was uneventful and MUCH easier than the hike up. We kept our eyes open for wildlife while we were in the park, but didn't see anything. But, just after leaving the park, we spotted several elk grazing by the road.

We had another quiet evening at home after the big hike.