The day, characteristically for a hiking day, started before sunrise. Out of convenience and partiality we journeyed again to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our goal this time was to reach a mountain lake called Helene Lake. Not often visited in the winter, Helene Lake’s lack of traffic is the result of the lake shore being a ways off from the official Odessa Lake trail. On top of that, the trailhead for this hike is at the Bear Lake parking area, one of the most heavily visited sites in the park (due to the easy walk around Bear Lake itself, and the wildly popular hike up to Dream Lake and Emerald Lake). We hoped to avoid this latter issue by getting to the park early on a weekday, which paid off.

The trail, obscured by recent snow, wasn’t easy to find at first. However, we eventually got going in the right direction following signs for Odessa Lake and a newly cut ski track. As with most trails in RMNP, we were immediately hiking a sharp uphill slope. This of course, also as with most trails in RMNP, meant that the vistas went rapidly from scenic to epic.

The ski track maintained a consistent gradient as it wove up through the snowy evergreens and was taking us in roughly the right direction. We got by without snowshoes on during this early segment, post-holing in the snow only once or twice. The clouds, which had been forecasted to bring snow, were slowly giving way to blue sky and sun.

As the trail began to level out, the trees opened to reveal a broad meadow. The trails split here, with the skiers (and their compacted snow) veering left to ascend Flattop Mountain, and footprints going right towards Odessa Lake. Snowshoes were in order beyond this point. Once equipped, we proceeded to follow the footprints. This path diverged once it went back into the trees, and we were happy to have brought a map of the area along.

We kept Flattop on our left and followed along the base of the mountain slope. After a long time on this route and a fair amount of self-doubt, Notchtop Mountain (with a very characteristic notch easily visible from our angle of approach) finally began to crest above the trees ahead. Helena Lake would be right at the base of Notchtop, so we became hopeful again.

The trail from here turned a bit monotonous. Notchtop went in and out of view beyond the pines as we crunched along. Suddenly around one of the bends, the trail we had been following abruptly ended. Some large boulders were ahead of us, surrounded by deep snow drifts, and apparently whoever had tried the trail before us had decided to turn around and go home at this point.

We carried on, breaking a new path through the snow, and found another broad meadow just past the boulders. Looking around at the local topography, we realized that this new meadow must have actually been Two Rivers Lake, covered in a foot or two of snow. After trudging across the lake towards the now towering Notchtop and Flattop Mountains, we realized that Helene Lake would also likely be covered, and perhaps a bit more difficult to find.

Pulling out the map again, we located Joe Mills Mountain and the ridge of Little Matterhorn on our right, and then hiked away from these in the direction we believed our destination to be. Sure enough, the topography lead us straight and true to a treeless pocket at the base of Notchtop. The lake being buried had been a genuine concern as the day’s big goal was just another mass of powder. Still, the views along the way had made this hike more than worthwhile.

Turning back, we made a quick jaunt to the north so that we could see the valley drop off and get a view of Odessa Lake far below. That would have to be a hike for another (warmer) day. We followed our clear cut trail back out the way we had come in. Thankfully, the forecasted weather had never arrived.

With snowshoes on, it was a very quick hike back down to Bear Lake, which had become packed during our time on the trail. The area was full of people and we made a beeline for the car. We were grateful for a second successful hike in 2021. Next up, Moab.

Thanks for reading!

~Sky & Ty