Odessa Lake and Lake Helene
For whatever reason, we thought it would be a great idea to go up into Rocky Mountain National Park on the weekend before the 4th of July. If that's not bad enough, we decided to start our hike in the most popular area, Bear Lake. But we did it, and it was packed in the morning. It took about 20 minutes for us to get through the entrance and buy our annual pass. We got into the park around 8 am, parked, took the shuttle to Bear Lake Trailhead, and started our hike a little after 9 am. Once we took our first turn off the path from Bear Lake, the number of people significantly decreased, and it was back to just us and nature.
Our original goal was to make it to Lake Helene with the intent on hiking down the gorge to Odessa Lake. We brought enough food that we could eat lunch at one of the lakes, and since we got to Lake Helene around 11, we thought we would hike the extra 1.2 miles down to Odessa Lake for our lunch break. We ended up getting a little lost trying to get back on the trail to head to Odessa Lake, but we ended up finding an amazing overlook of the gorge including both lakes and Notchtop Mountain, so getting lost worked out in our favor.
The hike took us a total of 4 hours, 47 minutes and we hiked a total distance of 9.48 miles with a strenuous 2524 feet of elevation gain.
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![My Hiker Buddy](/photos/2018/july/album011636IMG_2937.jpg)
My Hiker Buddy
We started our hike at Bear Lake where we took some photos, but we've taken photos there before so I decided not to post them. Once we got about a half mile from Bear Lake, I took this shot of Katie.
![Bierstadt Lake](/photos/2018/july/album011636IMG_2949.jpg)
Bierstadt Lake
I think this is Bierstadt lake in the distance. I can't be positive though.
![Little Creek](/photos/2018/july/album011636IMG_2957.jpg)
Little Creek
We found a little creek that we stopped to take some photos of.
![Circular Bokah](/photos/2018/july/album011636IMG_2963.jpg)
Circular Bokah
The past few days I've been 3D printing a few bokah filters. When I saw this photo during the editing and noticed the bokah, I realized I should have brought my filters. Oh well, maybe next time.
![Snowy Day in July](/photos/2018/july/album011636IMG_2979.jpg)
Snowy Day in July
We found a little bit of snow that we had to hike across.
![Bent](/photos/2018/july/album011636IMG_2984.jpg)
Bent
I took this photo because of the one bent tree on the right. I then realized that all of the trees were slanted. The snow that I'm standing on must have shifted enough over the past 80 years to give the trees this angle.
![Deer](/photos/2018/july/album011641IMG_2989.jpg)
Deer
Katherine spotted this deer on our hike. I'm not sure how she spotted it since it was in the shade and standing still, but I took a few photos of her and we kept going.
![Notchtop Mountain](/photos/2018/july/album011641IMG_3035.jpg)
Notchtop Mountain
This mountain is appropriately names Notchtop mountain.
![Snack Time Panorama](/photos/2018/july/album011641Untitled_Panorama1.jpg)
Snack Time Panorama
We made it to Lake Helene and we tried to walk around the lake to find a good spot to eat a snack. We realized that we couldn't actually hike all the way around, so we stopped here for a snack and continued on.
![Lake Helene](/photos/2018/july/album011642IMG_3089.jpg)
Lake Helene
This is Lake Helene with Flattop Mountain in the background. I took this photo with my new prime lens, I was very surprised at how clear the photo ended up compared to my Tamron.
![Flattop Mountain](/photos/2018/july/album011645IMG_3097.jpg)
Flattop Mountain
![Clear Water](/photos/2018/july/album011645IMG_3114.jpg)
Clear Water
We finally made it to the East end of Lake Helene to take a photo of the lake and Notchtop Mountain. The water was remarkably clear!
![Odessa Lake](/photos/2018/july/album011645IMG_3121.jpg)
Odessa Lake
We continued on to Odessa Lake. We couldn't figure out where to go from Lake Helene but we followed an unofficial trail that led us up to this view. Unfortunately, that's where the trail ended. We could see where we needed to go (see the right-hand side in the photo), but we had no idea how to get there. After wandering around a little, we found the official trail and we were on our way!
![Odessa and Katherine](/photos/2018/july/album011648IMG_3139.jpg)
Odessa and Katherine
Katherine posing in front of Odessa Lake. It looks so small from up here!
![Down We Go](/photos/2018/july/album011648IMG_3143.jpg)
Down We Go
We hiked down the gorge which started out like this. It was pretty loose footings, but we managed to make it without slipping and falling to our death into the gorge.
![Fern Creek](/photos/2018/july/album011648IMG_3150.jpg)
Fern Creek
The last bit of the hike to Odessa Lake had us following Fern Creek.