There is a fairly large parking lot here, but it fills up early. If you arrive before 9AM, you should be able to find a spot. If you arrive later in the day, you can take your chances and try to find a spot someone else is vacating, or you can park at Glacier Basin and take the free shuttle... more

We recently hiked at RMNP with our 14 and 10 year old kids. We parked our car at the Park & Ride and rode the shuttle to Bear Lake (highly recommend taking advantage of the shuttles!). We took the trail around Bear Lake backwards, if you're using one of the guides available for a small donation. It was easy and... more

I live in Colorado and we always visit this lake. Every time we go we see something different. During winter the lake is covered in snow and the water is ice. There is a trail around the lake too, so you can see it from different views. My family and I enjoyed a great day, we walked through the icy... more

We hiked this trail from Bear Lake to Nymph Lake and Dream Lake on June 1, 2008. There was still a large amount of snow on the ground, which made it hard to find the trail from Nymph to Dream, but once we got there, the views were amazing with the snow! There are many places to stop along the... more

Our loop hike from Bear Lake was about 8 miles and we were able to see five alpine lakes and Alberta Falls. It seems as though the trail to out to Emerald Lake is very popular and I can see why. Easy to manage and great views. We wanted to branch out so we included the trail up to Lake... more

Went to Denver for a conference, but sneaked away for a day and drove about 90 minutes up to the park. Nice easy drive from Denver - especially at the crack of dawn! The Bear Lake trailhead was very easy to navigate with a good selection of trails of varying difficulty. The views were simply breathtaking and inspirational - this... more

Bear Lake is a pretty lake, at the end of the Bear Lake Road. There is no hiking required to get to the lake, which was good for my family since we're not hikers. On the day we were there, a lot of snow was still covering the trail around the lake so we only walked a round the lake... more

Yesterday we had the good fortune to visit the trail head after 6 fresh inches of snow. We only ventured over to the lake and a few hundred yards around it since we were not prepared with proper foot gear.(We were in route to the airport) Many hikers were there with snow shoes( rented from Estes Park), cross country skis... more

From the Bear Lake Trailhead, one can choose from a variety of hikes, most of which I regard as the best easy hikes in RMNP. While you can hike to Mills Lake, The Loch, or Alberta Falls from the trailhead, there are two potential hikes which are simply amazing which can begin at the Bear Lake Trailhead. The first of... more