Cub Lake- Rocky Mountain National Park

We started at the Fern Lake Trailhead.

There is a Big Thompson river along the trail. Fun bridges to cross.

The river was running very fast.

The wildfire burned in 2012  3500 acres in the Cub Lake, lower Forest Canyon and Moraine Park ares, making it the largest wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park History.  

Coming to the Cub Lake.

Cub Lake is known for the lovely lily pads. It was a bit too early for the blooms.

We spotted a young Moose. There was no mother to be seen.

We took the road back to the trailhead. Hike was approx 4.6 miles.

Bierstadt Lake- Rocky Mountain National Park Snowshoe

There was plenty of snow at Rocky Mountain for our Snowshoe. We started at Bear Lake trailhead for the trek to Bierstadt Lake.

The trail is about 4 miles roundtrip and an easy 255+ feet of elevation gain.  

When snowshoeing in the snow-its harder to find the trails. You need to be familiar where you are going. The trails change a bit each winter depending on who begins the tracks.

At Bierstadt Lake we made some fresh tracks.

Getting some lunch before heading back.

Some views of the National Park.

Hiking the winter trail to the Loch at Rocky Mountain National Park

Some of the trail was along a ledge, made it hard to get your balance without snowshoes. There were X-country skiers below another trail.

Trail starts off easy and level.

We chose a beautiful day to snowshoe to the Loch Lake. Some didnt bring their snowshoes-big mistake they had to turn back.
Soon you will come upon Glacier Jorge Junction, the start of the trail to the Loch.

We started at the Glacier Gorge Parking Lot. This is smaller than Bear Lake and fills up fast. The total hike was about 5.5 miles total. The trail was difficult to find and I was glad to have a gps when we were unsure of the way to go.

Lots of options at the junction. Its always harder to find your way after a snowfall.




Finally we get a view of the mountains ahead. Beautiful!! The trail passes between two Glacier knobs.

The trail gets steeper , the closer you get.

Soon you are doing switchbacks to get to the top.

Going down it was easier to slide. It was so much fun!
One of my favorite snowshoe trails.

The view at the Loch! Breathtaking! It was so windy we could hardly stand up.

Deer Mountain- Rocky Mountain National Park

To access Deer Mountain Trailhead you make a right after leaving Beaver Meadows Visitor center. There wasn't a lot of snow . We carried our snowshoes halfway up the mountain. I used my microspikes since the trail was snow-covered.

The trail heads up gradually but soon leads to many switchbacks. The distance is 3 miles to the summit from the trailhead. 1,061 elevation

The views are beautiful as we head to the top.

A lot of the trail heads through forest area. You never get above tree line. We kept thinking we were at the top. The trail levels off and even heads down a bit as you cross over to the other side of the mountain. Here the views are great. Below is Estes Park Lake and the town.

We saw unusual trees at the summit. Great Views all around.

Here you can see St Marys Lake. There wasn't much snow this week in January. We started about 10 am and took 4 hours total.

On the way down it was harder to find the trail as the snow was melting.