Nymph Lake
Dream Lake
Emerald Lake
Bear Lake

Our third day in a row of hiking brought, you guessed it, more rain. At this point, however, we realized that, while somewhat annoying, it wasn't stopping us from having a great time. So off we went to the Bear Lake trailhead, which at 6:30 in the morning still had tons of parking - and like Glacier Gorge, it was packed by the time we returned.

On the way to the trailhead, we saw at least 30 elk, which of course isn't uncommon in RMNP, but it's still always fun to see - especially when one keeps trying to walk across the road in front of you, or you see a group of babies frolicking. One young elk was even nursing with its mother - so of course we invaded their privacy by snapping a photo.

The plan for the day was to take it easy, and the 3.5 mile hike up to Emerald Lake, with two more lakes preceding it, is the perfect way to do it. It's less than a mile between each lake, and before we'd hardly gotten started, we'd arrived at Nymph Lake. Nestled in the forest, this was a very pretty lake, covered in lily pads (ironically enough, Lily Lake had zero lily pads).

We continued on to Dream Lake, which is so long and skinny, it might be confused with an over-sized river. Again, the quiet and solitude at that time of morning is a wondrous thing. In between lakes, we could follow the creek many times, rushing along at a breakneck pace until it hit the next lake in the chain.

In no time at all, we were at Emerald Lake, an absolutely stunning area. As clouds rolled over their summits, I stared in wonder up at Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain (although I don't believe you can technically see either summit from Emerald Lake), two peaks that I'd wanted to hike on this trip, but ultimately got nixed off the board. I'll be back for them! The only other people up there were two gentlemen and a young boy who was with them. Kellie and I sat down in a small dry area under a tree, had some snacks, and just enjoyed the beauty of it all.

Upon returning to the trailhead, we both felt good, so we opted to go ahead and do the quick 1-mile hike around Bear Lake. The solitude was gone, but if you can look past the hordes of people, it really is a beautiful area. Four beautiful lakes, one beautiful hike!