Dream Lake
May 29
Dream Lake
Trailhead: Bear Lake Trailhead, Rocky Mountain National Park
Distance: 2.2 miles (easy)
On Memorial Day, Logan and I got up relatively early and packed up camp. I had a hard time deciding what hike I wanted to do, but with my family coming up the next Saturday I figured I should at least check out the trail to Emerald Lake.
The Bear Lake trailhead always has a ton of rangers, something that I have grown to appreciate, especially in the winter when I want to know about snow conditions. It may have been May, but the week before RMNP got about 3 feet of snow - avalanche danger was high with that much wet snow on the mountains. I talked with a ranger about where those conditions were most dangerous, what the trail was like, and felt ten million times better about bringing my family!
We strapped on our Yaktrax and headed up the trail.
We made it to Nymph Lake quickly, and were surprised at the lack of people we were seeing. For it being Memorial Day, there was hardly anyone out on the trail (not that we were complaining). It meant we were able to get our favorite viewpoints totally to ourselves!
Dream Lake came up quickly, and was absolutely stunning. The snow was still sticky from the overnight chill, so we didn't have too hard of a time getting there (but the people in just tennis shoes were struggling, that's for sure).
We rounded a corner to a bare-ass lady who was upset that we walked "in" on her peeing - she was 2 feet off the main trail! I laughed and kept going and Logan remained blissfully ignorant of what just happened. If you have to pee, at least have the decency to go further away?
We stopped at Dream for a few reasons: first and foremost, we missed our kitty cat and wanted to get home to snuggle with her. But we also stopped because we knew we'd be back in less than a week with my family and I didn't feel a sense of urgency to get all the way to the top. It was refreshing.