Hike- Flattop Mountain

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Sometimes the best hikes are the ones you do not plan. That happened to us late last year when we wanted to hike to Odessa Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The branch-off to the lake hike was surprisingly closed (even though AllTrails said it was open). We decided to continue the path up to Flattop Mountain and we are so glad we did. 

Flattop Mountain is an 8.2 mile, 2,870 ft elevation gain hike located in Rocky Mountain National Park. As a disclaimer, we did not make it all the way to the top but I will show pictures from our summit. The trailhead branches off from the loop around Bear Lake if you start the loop counterclockwise. Since Bear Lake is so popular, that parking lot fills up fast, so I'd recommend getting there before 7:30 am on a weekend. When we were walking around the lake to get to the trailhead, we heard a peculiar noise and it ended up being the ice on the lake shifting. How bizarre!

The beginning of the hike is a very gradual hill going through beautiful aspen trees. When we hiked it in November, there was quite a bit of snow around, but the path was packed down. We had poles and no spikes and did just fine. After passing the turn off for Odessa Lake, the path to Flattop is a lot of long switchbacks. The snow definitely got deeper the higher we climbed. 

During the hike, there were many outlooks that you could see Dream Lake and windows back into the park. The nice park with the trail is that you hardly feel the elevation gain. Next thing you know, you're overlooking all of Rocky Mountain National Park. Getting closer to the top, the wind started whipping like crazy and temperatures plummeted. We ate a sandwich with our gloves off and our fingers froze. 

At the top, the views are amazing! You are surrounded by mountains and snow. We decided to stop at the main lookout because the remaining of the trail was going straight into a dark cloud and we didn't want to mess with that. The wind was throwing the clouds above us and the sun eventually peaked out. 

On the hike down, it started so snow and it made the forest feel magical. I hope you can experience the magic of Flattop Mountain too! Here is the link to the AllTrails to see trail conditions. Below are all my amazing photos from the hike. 

Bear Lake is frozen over
First overlook
There's Dream Lake down below
You can see how much snow has piled up
Some obstacles but could be cleared



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