Deer Mountain – Rocky Mountain National Park
Distance: 6 miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Starting and Ending Elevation: 8,900 ft – 10,059 ft
Time: 3 hours
Distance from Denver: 1 hour and 45 minutes

If you’re looking for a less crowded trail in Rocky Mountain National park that still has great views, Deer Mountain is a great option for you. You’ll start this train in a valley and then hike through aspen trees, up a ton of steep switchbacks until you reach the summit – the switchbacks feel endless and you’ll feel your booty the next day, but the 360 degree panoramic views are totally worth it. If you’re used to hiking at lower elevation, you may need to stop to catch your breath a few times. There’s a mix of both shaded areas and sections with more open views. Bring a light layer as the top can be a lot colder and windier than the base. We saw deer, elk, and ground squirrels on this hike. 

The trailhead has limited parking and you will need to pay the Rocky Mountain National Park entrance fee or use your America the Beautiful annual pass. There is not a bathroom at this trailhead.

Lily Lake – Rocky Mountain National Park
Distance: 0.8 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Starting and Ending Elevation: 8,900 ft (minimal changes)
Time: 20 minutes
Distance from Denver: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Wow! What a beautiful hike. This is a great way to start your day (or end  your day if your legs are getting tired, but you just want one more scenic walk). The Lily Lake loop is a great mix of boardwalk and well-maintained dirt as you circle around the pretty lake. You’ll have stunning snow-capped mountain views, and potentially some picturesque reflections in the water. The views start from the parking area, making this a great place to picnic. Bring your bug spray for this one – we found it to be quite buggy. 

While this hike is considered part of Rocky Mountain National park, you won’t go through an entrance booth to enter the parking area for this trail. Parking was free when we visited.

Nymph, Dream, Emerald, and Haiyaha Lakes – Rocky Mountain National Park
Distance: 5 miles (5.5 miles if you add on Bear Lake)
Difficulty: Easy side of Moderate
Starting and Ending Elevation: 9,394 ft – 10,275 ft (1,086 ft gain)
Time: 2 – 3.5 hours (more or less time depending on if you add on Bear Lake and how long you stop for food)
Distance from Denver: 1 hour and 45 minutes

This is one of the best hikes in the park – and for good reasons. It’s absolutely breathtaking and you’ll get to see FIVE uniquely beautiful lakes. If you don’t want to see all five lakes, this trail is an out and back with some offshoots, so you can easily adapt and turn around at any point. The main trail takes you to three lakes – Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes – in that order. You can choose to add on two separate smaller trails – one to Haiyaha Lake (which we highly recommend) and one to Bear Lake.

You’ll start out on a paved trail before it quickly turns into a dirt path. It’s pretty much uphill the entire way to the first and smallest lake, Nymph Lake, but the uphill isn’t too challenging. You’ll walk about a half mile on the tree-lined path before reaching the lily-pad filled pond.

When you’re done admiring the lily pads, keep on trekking towards Dream Lake. You’ll walk about another half mile uphill to reach lake number two. This section is a little bit steeper, but the reward at the top is sweeping views of pine trees and snow-capped mountains. Dream Lake is the longest lake on this hike. You’ll meander around the side of it as you make your way to the third lake – Emerald Lake.

The hike to Emerald Lake is the steepest section yet. But, if you’re like us, you’ll be captivated by the views and also eager to find a nice spot at Emerald Lake to eat lunch. If you’re not used to hiking at higher elevation, take it slow and catch your breath when you need to. You will be hiking above 10,000 ft in some sections. The view of Emerald Lake is postcard worthy and makes for the perfect backdrop for lunch. Since this is a more popular lunch spot, you might see marmots, ground squirrels, and chipmunks vying for your food. 

We weren’t sure how we’d be feeling adjusting to the altitude so adding on Lake Haiyaha was a last minute decision – and we are so happy we did it! The hike out to lake number four was extremely peaceful and we only encountered a few other hikers. The fantastic views make the slight uphill just slightly more bearable. For part of this section, the trail gets pretty narrow. Without any railings, it might make your stomach drop, but this part goes by quickly and the trail opens up again. Snow! You also might see some snow on this section of the hike. We went in June and there were some snowy areas, but not enough to require special equipment.

If you’d like to add on Bear Lake, it’s best to do it at the beginning or end of your hike since the entrance is right near the parking lot. We were planning on ending our hike with this lake, but sadly had to skip it because a thunderstorm started just as we arrived at the trailhead. Thunderstorms are apparently common in the summer months, so try and hit the trails early to avoid this happening to you!

It is one of the more popular hikes, so don’t expect to have the trail to yourself, but it is still 100% worth completing. I feel like it’s always better to know and set an expectation that a trail will be crowded so I’m not disappointed if I don’t have solitude. In our experience, crowds did die down quite a bit on the offshoot to Haiyaha Lake, which is one of the reasons that it was our favorite section of the hike.