Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park

The morning of our anniversary trip, we hiked to Dream Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. We drove in the main gate and stopped at the Ranger station. Jack, the Ranger staffing the desk, is the most helpful and nicest NPS Ranger I have ever met. He gave us some suggestions about the trails. We drove up to the highway for some photos. The road closes seasonally, but you can park there and get out to look around. The road is snow-packed and icy but well-worth the drive. We also pulled off on a few stops on the road for more photo ops.

Address and Location

You’ll find Rocky Mountain National Park at 1000 US Highway 36 in Estes Park. Access to the western park entrance is seasonal.

Cost

You can purchase one or seven day passes. These are good for individuals, cars, or motorcycles and range from $15 to $35. The annual park pass costs $70. As always, America the Beautiful park pass holders get in free.

What to do

We then made our way to the Bear Lake trail head where we met two more super nice Rangers. The trails are also snow-packed. “Snow-packed” ranges from a solid pack that’s easy to walk over to snow drifts that are soft and almost four feet deep. I managed to find every one of these. You can do hiking boots like us, but probably 90% of the other hikers wore snowshoes. Many of the rest had cross-country skies. We both wore waterproof pants and multiple top layers (a base shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, and a fleece) with hats and gloves. The pants dried quickly after falling in the soft snow, and I was warm enough to warrant taking off my fleece a few times (though I dealt with it because I had my backpack and my camera). The park rates the hike as moderate, but the snow made it more challenging.

We hiked to Nymph Lake then to Dream Lake. It was just over a mile each way. Emerald Lake sits past Dream Lake as the third lake on the trail, but we chose not to keep on going because I’m wildly out of shape. Back at the trailhead, we walked the 256 feet to check out Bear Lake. We saw a little squirrel stealing another squirrel’s nuts. The other objected quite loudly.

Have you ever hiked to Dream Lake?