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Day 1

Glacier Gorge Junction Trailhead, Bear Lake Road, Estes Park, CO, USA
Alberta Falls, Estes Park, CO, USA
Timberline Falls, Colorado, USA
Lake of Glass, CO, USA
Sky Pond, Colorado, USA
Bear Lake, Colorado, USA

Planned on doing the Sky Pond hike (9 miles roundtrip) and started the drive from south Denver to Rocky Mountain National Park around 4:45 AM. Got to the Glacier Gorge Junction Trailhead (take Bear Lake Road) at 6:30 AM and was disappointed to see it was already full. Continued on to the Bear Lake parking lot, which had plenty of spots. You can park at either place for Sky Pond actually, not much difference as far as mileage goes and if you don’t want to walk uphill to the Bear Lake lot on the way back, you can just go to the Glacier Gorge parking lot and catch the free shuttle.

The Sky Pond hike is amazing, so much variety: lakes, waterfalls, mountains. You’ll pass Alberta Falls and The Loch, which are both beautiful. Once you get up Timberline Falls, you’ll see the Lake of Glass. Make sure you keep going on the trail around the right side of the pond, as that is not Sky Pond. We heard some people stop there and turn around, thinking it is, but Sky Pond is a little further and a little higher. There were only 3 or 4 other people at Sky Pond when we were so I would highly recommend going as early as you can. Lots more people heading up on our way back down, and the scramble up Timberline Falls as well as the other snow-covered spots would be a little trickier with a crowd. On the way back, we tried to tack on Andrew’s Glacier (trail splits off from the Sky Pond trail, 1.3 miles one-way) and got to the open part where it gets very steep. We went up a little ways and had to take a break on some rocks. After watching one person try and slog through the melting snow at such an incline, we decided to call it a day and headed back. He even had poles, which we didn’t, and it looked miserable. It would have been a very long, difficult process but I have a feeling I’ll make it to the end on another visit. On the plus side it was fun to slide down the incline in the snow.

I had never been to Bear Lake, so it actually turned out to be for the best that we parked there. Got to walk part of the way around and see the lake, which is only 250 feet from the parking lot and spectacular. Hiked almost 12 miles total and left the park around 1:30 PM.

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Sky Pond hike, RMNP

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Sky Pond hike, RMNP

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