Rocky Mountain National Park lakes

It was a nice and warm weekend in November and we decided to take advantage of warm weather and spend some time up in the mountains. We have chosen Rocky Mountain National Park as our destination and specifically wanted to look at the lakes. Probably the last time before the snow would cover the slopes with white blanket and change the landscape until Spring time.

 

We dropped the car at the parking lot and began to walk on the most popular trail from Bear Lake to Emerald Lake. We passed Bear Lake to avoid the crowds and hiked to Nymph Lake. The air was fresh and still cold in the morning and the lake looked just amazing. Actually, Nymph Lake always looks amazing, regardless of the weather and the season ;).

We left the lake and followed the trail, weaving and climbing up. We spotted Nymph Lake down there and stayed at the viewpoint for a while before continuing further.

The trail made a few more turns and became relatively flat, following the creek.

Soon we stopped at the Dream Lake - the second lake on our path up and if the Nymph Lake looked like a nice warm water lake, Dream Lake made a completely different impression. There was no doubt, this lake is cold and rough. Located between tough rocks and tall pine trees it looked northern and harsh. We stepped down the water to check if it was cold (and it was) and spotted a couple of Rainbow Trouts slowly cruising in close proximity. We tracked their movement until they waded their tails and disappeared between the rocks.

We continued our hite and in about 10 minutes found ourselves looking at the last lake on the trail - Emerald Lake. This one is located even higher and there are very few trees surrounding it. It looked even harsher and grayer. Here we found a Cutthroat Trout which moved slowly showing off its colorful appearance. And again it disappeared with one tail blow and we understood we needed to change the subject to something less skittish.

We liked the cold gray granite walls surrounding Emerald Lake and the lake that looked like a gem, hidden between them.

We were sitting at the flat rock and having our sandwiches when we realized we had company ;) A couple of fearless birds flew back and forth and were brave enough to get the crumbs from under our feet. Actually there were also a couple of chipmunks who also tried to get some lunch but those refused to pose and remained uncaptured by the camera.

Just look at this Camp Robber. This one was really brave and stole a few grapes from the container lid I held in my hand ;) I was still laughing about that when the bird dove down, landed on my wrist and took the grape berry from my hand. Probably it was really hungry so we left whatever we still had for the bird to feast on and walked back to the head of the trail.

We stopped for a sec at Dream Lake and admired the water of a beautiful green color...

...and turned to Bear Lake where we finished our hike walking around the last lake on our way.

In case if you curious to see how the same place looks like during the Summer month, click here - Beautiful mountain lakes

Pictures were taken on November 18, 2015.