Bear Lake Road: Worth the Timed Entry?

Some of Rocky Mountain National Park’s prettiest alpine lakes including Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake are packed into this short scenic corridor. You don’t have to be an experienced hiker to enjoy them. We paired Bear Lake Road with Trail Ridge Road over two days, and it gave us the perfect mix of scenic driving and unforgettable hiking.

Bear Lake Road at Rocky Mountain National Park

Don’t underestimate Bear Lake Road within the Rocky Mountain National Park. It may look short on the map, but you can easily spend an entire day exploring.

The road is a winding 9.5 miles long. The most popular trail, Bear Lake, is at the end of the road. However, there are many areas to explore on the way. If you want to hike Bear Lake Trail and that is your main destination I would recommend driving to this parking area first. We visited in July and the parking lots filled up fast.

Bear Lake Road Overview

Morraine Park

After showing our timed ticket we Our first stop on Bear Lake Road was to see Morraine Park area. The Big Thompson River flows through this glacial valley.

there are several trails off of this road including Cub Lake Trail

If you continue down the road you’ll come to Fern Lake trailhead.

My goal was to hike Bear Lake Trail, so we didn’t spend that much time in the other areas of this section of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Bear Lake Trail

The lake that this corridor is named after is an easy hike from the parking lot. Bear Lake is only a few hundred feet and is easily accessed for all age and hiking skill levels.

Nymph Lake

The hike from Bear Lake to Nymph lake is uphill for about a half a mile. I would allow an hour round trip, but I am a dilly dally person when I hike. I like to stop, watch the wildlife, and take 1,000 photos. If you’re not like that you could do this in less time.

The first thing I noticed at this small lake was all of the lily pads decorating the top. The best views of this lake were not the first that we saw. Continue walking around the lake to your right.

The best views are found if you continue walking towards Dream Lake and look back at Nymph Lake. Here you can see the Hallett Peak and Flattop Mountain in the background.

This is a smaller lake, but it is scenic nonetheless. We walked around the entire lake and watched a chipmunk take a dirt bath. He pushed all the pine needles away from him so he could roll around in the dirt.

My daughter and I continued the hike from Nymph Lake to Dream Lake on our own because my husband didn’t want to continue. It was uphill the rest of the way.

Tyndall Creek

Beautiful creek that you will walk next to Tyndall Creek. You can’t always see the creek along the trail, but you’ll be able to hear it.

Dream Lake

The hike from Nymph lake to Dream Lake is uphill and even with us stopping and not walking at a steady pace it took about 20 minutes from the time we left Nymph lake to when we reached Dream Lake.

While we were exploring Dream Lake we were lucky to see a fox. He obviously caught something, so I guess not so lucky for whatever that was. He was so pretty, we watched him for a long time and eventually he jumped across the creek and went into the woods.

We were going to continue hiking to Emerald Lake, but within 10 minutes the sky went from sunny and bright to windy and dark. It started to rain so decided to save Emerald Lake for another visit and hiked back down to the parking lot. Emerald Lake is an additional .7 mile hike from Dream Lake.

The number one thing that negatively affected exploring Bear Lake Road was that I couldn’t get a timed entry sooner in the day. We visited over the holiday in July so I was just happy to get the reservation that I did. I purchased the tickets 30-days before our visit and still was unable to make it sooner with our schedule. For the next visit will visit on a non-holiday weekend and secure an earlier timed entry for Bear Lake Road. My favorite part of the hike was seeing the red fox. This is an amazing area to hike because you have so many choices.

Where to Enter For Bear Lake Corridor

Use the National Park Beaver Meadows Entrance Station in Estes Park, Colorado. After entering the park, Bear Lake Road is the first road on your right. There is another entrance at this road where you will need to show your timed so there is a separate timed entry that is required to enter during the busy summer months.

I purchased the timed entry a month before I visited. Since the Trail Ridge Road took one full day to experience I purchased two timed entry tickets for the same weekend. Bear Lake Road is an area of Rocky Mountain National Park that includes Bear Lake, bu

tIf you’re visiting between the months of May through October you will need a timed entry ticket to enter the National Park and an additional timed entry for the Bear Lake region, which means you will want the Rocky Mountain National park + Bear Lake Timed entry ticket.

Map from Beaver Meadows Visitor Center to Bear Lake Parking Lot

You can obtain a timed ticket through the Rec.gov website. This timed entry ticket is in addition to your park entrance fee. As of 2026, the Park entrance fee is $30 for a private vehicle and timed entry fee is $2.00.Your timed ticket will show the time you can enter. You have 2-hour window from this time to enter Bear Lake.

Bear Lake Timed Ticket Entry after 2 pm

Is your Bear Lake timed entry ticket at 2pm or later? If so, the line is likely to be long since the National Park entrance is no longer timed after 2pm, however Bear Lake entry is timed until 6 pm. If you have a National Park Pass you do not need to sit in this long line. Choose the outer right station you will see a park ranger standing in the line and they will ask you if you have a timed entry and if you have a park pass. If yes, you will be able to bypass this long line getting you to the Bear Lake Entry on time.

Can you enter Bear Lake Corridor Without a Reservation?

If you cannot obtain a timed entry ticket you can visit before 5 am or after 6 pm.

How to get to Bear Lake Entry

From the Park entrance drive about .2 miles on Hwy 36, Bear Lake Road is on your left. You will need to show your timed entry ticket at this entrance.

Bear Lake Road FAQs

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