Rocky Mountain National Park: The Loch Trail

ByChristine Updated on

The second time we went to Rocky Mountain National Park it was also an overcast snowy day. One of these days we’ll get out there when the weather is better and actually have the full spectacular views. As it was, the views were still pretty good, and at the end of the day the weather partially broke for us to see the mountains and a partial sunset.

But I am getting ahead of myself. We again went to the Bear Lake area, but stopped at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead. Initially we had planned to hike out to Mills Lake. So how did we end up at The Loch you ask?

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Hiking To The Loch In Winter

The trail out to Mills Lake and The Loch were one and the same for quite awhile, until a fork in the trail near the end. And we actually started down the Mills Lake branch, but what we discovered is that when you have a bunch of folks hiking in the area and the true trails obscured by snow, you sometimes have what appear to the be real trail, the snow compacted by numerous feet traveling the same way, and it can be hard to tell the difference.

Anyway, we weren’t entirely sure, but it was such a neat area and going in the right direction, so we kept going, and eventually came across another hiker going the opposite direction who told us it was The Loch at the top. Oh well we thought, onward into Loch Vale it is!

This side trail up to Loch Vale was actually the best part of the hike we thought. It was steeper, took us next to and at times over the river, up to a striking rock face, and up to the lake.

Here it was pretty exposed and windy, so we walked out on the frozen lake, looked around and took a few pictures, though the snow hid all but the roughest outlines of surrounding mountains, and then retreated back into the trees.

On the way back we simply went back the way we had come. Since there had been at least a slight incline almost the entire way, the return trip was much faster than the hike in. All in all it was about a 6 mile trip.

Next time, I think we really will go to Mills Lake as planned.

What To Hike Next

We also recommend the Rocky Mountain National Park hike to Emerald Lake. You’ll actually see three lakes on this hike, first Nymph Lake, followed by Dream Lake, then Emerald Lake.

Christine is the co-founder of Never Stop Adventuring, and an avid traveler who started traveling the world as a child growing up in a military family. She even lived in Germany for numerous years. Since then she has been to 48 U.S. states, 17 countries, and traveled the U.S. in an RV for over 7 years.

With her 3 kids, the adventures continued family travel style. She has planned and coordinated travel with kids for the last 10 years and shares family travel tips and tricks, destinations, costs and even the mistakes so you can be empowered to take your own family trips with confidence!