Rocky Mtn Ntnl Park – Fern Lake Hike

Conor sold me on a hike that we missed last year; Fern Lake in Rocky Mtn National Park. We attempted it last year but missed the trail split and ended up at Cub Lake. Not a bad trade as Cub Lake is spectacular no matter what… but we both still wanted to conquer this trail once and for all.

We began our hike at 7:30 AM to try to beat some of the heat that would be coming in during the day. Even that early in the day we were heating up pretty good on any climb in the trail. The half-way point of the trip out to Fern Lake was ‘The Pool‘, where we cross the river on a bridge and… this time… make the turn off on the right trail to Fern Lake. Another 1/2 mile out was Fern Falls which misted us for the few minutes we stood there to photograph the falls.

The mist equated to renewed energy, and energy we would need as the next 1.5 miles was all uphill and on rocky terrain and well into the 9000ft altitude range with the heat of the day massaging our shoulders every time we stepped out of the shadows. I kept it in low-gear and just motored up as best I could I didn’t get the impression that Conor wanted to go any faster either as he stayed behind me and never attempted to move ahead. This is the second time in a row where I feel like I am not holding up this 24 year old kid… heck, I may even have been going faster than he wanted :)

We arrived at Fern Lake just after 9:30. Conor wanted to continue on to Odessa Lake, another mile up the trail, which he completed and returned in less than an hour. Meanwhile, I chose to sit at Fern Lake and each lunch with a new found friend; the chipmunk, who shared a Cliff bar with me while protecting me from all the other begging rodents nearby. He was quite protective of me, but very gentle to me as well.

It was not an exceptionally difficult hike; just under 7.5 miles round-trip and just under 2000ft elevation gain, but I am happy we chose to tackle the climb early in the morning. By 11am on our way down it was much hotter and the smiles were lacking from all the people we passed on their way up. It was way too hot to be hiking this trail by that time. 70’s is too hot to hike and it was in the 80’s by the time we were heading down.