Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park

Sunday, October 5th: We dedicated much of the day to hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We picked two trails to check out, Bear Lake and Emerald Lake. 

The weather was quite frigid, so as you can tell from this photo below, we layered up quite a bit. I was toasty as we started walking, but the wind really pummeled us at times. 

A sweet couple from Green Bay, Wisconsin took this picture of us and we took one of them!

Our first hike was so easy and just a good warm-up for the more challenging one that followed. It was a mere half mile walk around Bear Lake, on pretty flat trails.

 The lake was picturesque and so were the mountains, of course.

After eating a few more snacks and warming up in the car, we got ready for a longer hike up the mountain.

Craig at Nymph Lake, the first of many bodies of water we passed on our hike to Emerald Lake.

After Nymph Lake, we started getting into hillier terrain and spotted many small waterfalls.

 Dream Lake was the last one we passed by before our final destination.

The trails were challenging, yet really enjoyable. I felt like I could have hiked all day at this point. Total endorphin high!

 Once at Emerald Lake, we were treated to this gorgeous view.

Craig rested with a new friend, who wanted to share his snack with him. There were chipmunks everywhere. This one even climbed on Craig's back!

I fueled up with peanut butter crackers and this delicious Mamma Chia squeeze I purchased specifically for hiking. 

The hike back was much easier than the hike in! Much of the trail looked like this, with logs to walk up, so it was a challenging 5.5 miles round trip.

We really enjoyed our hikes around Bear Lake and to Emerald Lake. I'd recommend the second one if you're an intermediate hiker. I was thankful for my Merrell hiking boots because there were many opportunities for me to turn my ankles.

Total miles hiked: almost 6.