The Lakes in Bear Lake and Glacier Gorge

We snagged a timed entry permit into the Bear Lake corridor this weekend so that's where we hiked. We haven't been to Rocky since March when we hiked to Emerald Lake which was too much for Katie's ankle with where she was at in her recovery. We haven't been back here because the summers are overly crowded and you need a timed entry permit to get in which can be a pain to get sometimes. but since school is back in session, we thought that maybe the crowds would be better. I'm sure they were better this weekend than previous weekends, but it was still busy.

Our timed entry permit was good between 8 and 10, so we planned to get there right before 8. With traffic at the entrance, we got in right at 8 and made our way to the shuttle lot. Having to take the shuttle to Bear Lake added about 30 minutes to our morning and we didn't get to start the hike until about 9 am. Taking the shuttle crammed with other hikers started the hike off in the wrong vein, but that's the only way to hike here in the summer (other than arriving before 5am), so that was our only viable option.

The hike started great. It was in the low 60s temperatures with a slight breeze which felt wonderful. Despite the hike starting from the most popular trailhead in Rocky, there weren't that many people at the start. but as we hiked further, it was busier and busier, with each lake having way too many people to enjoy. We made our way up to Nymph Lake and then Dream Lake before forking off the busy trail to go to Lake Haiyaha. Even though we've hiked by several of these lakes multiple times before, this is the first time we've done them in the summer together, and the views are different. Some of the lakes are better to enjoy in the summer (meaning the way they look and the areas you can lounge/rest at), but some are better to enjoy in the winter.

I've wanted to hike to Lake Haiyaha in the summer for about 4 years now since there was a landslide that caused the lake to turn a beautiful teal color. We've hiked this twice in the winter and have seen the teal ice, but I wanted to see the whole lake that teal color. When we got to the lake it was quite crowded, and it was a scramble to get to a spot where I wanted to take a photo. I'm still glad I got to see this lake in the summer, but the crowds were too much.

After Haiyaha, we headed down a connecting trail to Glacier Gorge. This is a lesser-used trail, so it was much nicer to hike on with fewer people. The connecting trail meets up at a junction where you could go back to the parking lot, go to Mills Lake, or go to The Loch. Katie was feeling good about her ankle, so we went to Mills Lake, a 1.2-mile detour. The hike back after that was a little brutal when we were hiking on sunny trails and the temperatures crept up above 80. We ended our hike at the Glacier Gorge trailhead where we took the shuttle back to our car.