One of the great things about Rocky Mountain National Park is the shuttle system which allowed me to access all my hikes from my base camp in Moraine Park Campground. Most of my hikes began here at Bear Lake which sits around 9,400' of elevation. The hike from Bear Lake to Fern Lake allowed me to walk one way back to my campsite totaling around 10 miles.
The trail gently ascends from Bear Lake...
...along the base of Flat Top Mountain approaching, but never quite going above, treeline.
Getting closer to the top of the climb. Some nice rock work done to stabilize the trail through this scree field.
Boulder field near Two Rivers Lake. Notch Top in the background.
Notch Top near Lake Helene.
Lake Helene is a spur trail off of the main trail before you begin the descent to Odessa Lake. The spur is unmarked and goes left as the main trail turns hard right around Joe Mills Mountain.
Looking back towards Notch Top as you begin the descent. The melting snow fields create many small waterfall down the base of Notch Top, sadly I wasn't able to capture any very well with my camera.
Descending down to Odessa Lake; absolutely beautiful views as the trail falls of sharply to your left providing open panoramas of the lake and surrounding mountains.
Odessa Lake looking back up towards Notch Top, in the center, and Little Matterhorn to the right.
Fern Lake through the trees.
Looking back up towards Notch Top and Little Matterhorn from Fern Lake. From this point the trail descends rapidly to the Big Thompson River which you follow out to the Fern Lake Trailhead 1.7 miles below.
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