It was a long time coming, but 2021 was the year Chelsea and I finally stood atop Hallett Peak!
I don’t remember when we originally decided we wanted to do this hike, but it was a while ago. The first time we made plans for it, Chelsea had to cancel. The second time, I was the one who cancelled. The third time, forest fire smoke forced us to change plans. Finally, this past July, we made it! Fourth time is the charm… as they say. Or something like that.
This hike begins at Bear Lake Trailhead in Rocky, also known as the busiest place in the park as it’s the starting point for many great hikes. Due to its popularity and also COVID, timed entry permits are now required at Rocky from May-October in order to better manage crowds. Specifically, to enter the Bear Lake corridor between 5am-6pm each day one must have a permit. They are available in advance online and sell out very quickly, especially the early morning time slots. Fortunately I was able to snag one, and the weather kindly decided to cooperate with us on this particular day. So off we went!
Just a couple hundred yards up the trail is Bear Lake, which on this particular morning was completely calm.
From here, we continued along the lake shore to the north following signs for Flattop Mountain. Not long after, the trail forks; for Flattop and Hallett, go left. At the next fork, go left again. It’s a steady ascent for pretty much the entirety of the hike. However, we found it to be a fairly well-graded climb; not too steep, but a consistent 600 feet per mile (115 m per km).
Pat and I had actually snowshoed the first mile or so of this trail a few months prior, heading up toward Flattop Mountain for a short distance before the freezing wind forced us to turn around. Here are a few photos from that day.
Anyway. As Chelsea and I neared tree line, we were able to see progressively more and more of the surrounding landscape including many of the lakes along the Bear Lake corridor. By far the best view was that of Emerald Lake, which does indeed look somewhat emerald-colored from above.
As we continued our ascent, it became clear that the second half of this hike wasn’t going to be what I expected. Flattop and Hallett are adjacent peaks along the Continental Divide. Between them is Tyndall Gorge, home to Dream and Emerald Lakes. As we climbed higher, though, it quickly became clear that what you can see from the lakes is not the actual summit of either of these mountains. The Flattop summit (elevation: 12,324 feet/3756 m) is in fact fairly flat, but the actual highest point is quite a distance beyond what is visible from below. As we cleared the trees and the trail curved around, we were surprised how much further we still had to go.
And then there’s Hallett, which is scarcely recognizable from up here. The iconic angular monolith visible from below isn’t even close to being the summit. It’s actually just one end – the lowest end – of a lengthy ridge line. The summit is at the opposite end.
Eventually we made it across the expansive tundra to the summit of Flattop. It’s a very broad summit. We didn’t find a summit marker, but one area looked to be the highest so we rock-hopped our way over and climbed onto the tallest boulder.
Rocky only maintains the trail as far as the Flattop summit. From here, we followed the cairns that denote the unmaintained trail across the saddle between the two summits. I assumed we’d be able to see down Tyndall Gorge to Emerald and Dream Lakes from here, but once again I was wrong. We could see Tyndall Glacier and a small tarn, but the lakes themselves were blocked by the terrain.
The trail descends only slightly after Flattop before beginning the ascent up Hallett (elevation 12,720 feet/3877 m). The steepest part of the entire hike was the final rocky climb up to the Hallett summit.
And finally, there we were! It was a reasonably calm day by Colorado standards, and there are a couple wind blocks on the summit. We staked a claim to one of them, and once out of the wind it was pretty perfect summit weather; the sun was warm, the sky was mostly clear (although slightly hazy), and we spent quite a while soaking up some vitamin D while enjoying the lovely views.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the many alpine wildflowers and the tundra critters we spotted along the trail, including marmots, pikas, and even a couple ptarmigans.
Hallett and Flattop: check!
The Important Stuff:
- Getting there: this hike departs from the Bear Lake Trailhead at the end of Bear Lake Road; consider leaving your car at the park-n-ride in the summer and taking the free shuttle to the trailhead. Once at Bear Lake, follow signs for Flattop Mountain
- Fees and passes: there is a $30/car daily or $35/car weekly entrance fee to RMNP; interagency annual passes are accepted. From May-Oct, if you arrive after 5:00am you will also need a timed entry permit to access this trailhead
- Hiking: for Flattop only, it’s about 9.2 miles (14.8 km) round trip with 2700 feet (823 m) of elevation gain; for Flattop + Hallett the round trip hike is 10.6 miles (17 km) with 3166 feet (965 m) of elevation gain
- Other: Probably the biggest concern on this hike is the weather. We were above tree line for a loooong time, with no place to seek shelter. Keep a close eye on the clouds and be ready to turn around at any time if a storm approaches.
For other hikes in the Bear Lake area, information on timed entry permits and the park shuttles, and other park details, see my visiting Rocky Mountain National Park post
Handstands Around the World 
One of the most memorable hikes I’ve taken – I so enjoyed this post. That was before you needed to register in advance. I believe this is the one where we slid down a glacier on the way back, speeded the return trip up a bit!
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Oooh that sounds fun! I’ve never done that before but I’m sure it was nice to bypass a bunch of the rocks with some glacier sliding 🙂
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What a great hike! Love that photo of the trees & clouds reflecting in Bear Lake. And how amazing is the contrast between winter and summer 😲. I can certainly see the last bit of that climb was a rocky one, but wow … what stunning views you had!
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Seeing the contrast between summer and winter is something I really enjoy! Fortunately there are many trails here that we’re able to hike in multiple seasons.
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My thought to best avoid the crowds on Rocky Mt. National Park would be to enter through the Grand Lake entrance and then look around. The hikes seem more manageable for my abilities there than in the steeper interior of the park.
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Yes, the Grand Lake side is definitely less crowded and so much calmer. I actually just posted about a hike there last night!
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Love the view from Hallet Peak! I’ve said this with another Colorado blogger too, but your marmots are so dark compared to ours.
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That’s interesting! Perhaps they’re a different subspecies or something. Or maybe they just blend in better being so dark. I’ll be interested to make the comparison myself next time I’m in the Canadian Rockies.
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Wohoo, I’m glad you made it! It looks like it was worth waiting for as it’s stunningly beautiful. Congrats 🙂
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Thank you!
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What a great day you had for it! We really enjoyed hiking to Hallett on our one and only visit to RMNP waaay back in 2001. It was the first time we saw pikas 🙂 I remember reaching the summit just before noon, and within 10 minutes we heard the first rumbles of thunder which prompted us to start our descent. We only just made it to the treeline before the storm hit us – and we met people still going up!! Is the Tyndall Glacier still there? It was already quite small in 2001 and we’ve seen how much some of the glaciers near Vancouver have shrunk in that time.
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Aren’t pikas just the cutest? They’re my favorite tundra critter! Sounds like you guys had a lovely hike… bummer it was cut short by weather. I can definitely relate, it has happened to me multiple times.
Tyndall “Glacier” is still there but it’s no linger classified as a glacier (not sure if it was in 2001 either). It’s visible as the snowfield in my photo that is taken from Flattop, looking across at Hallett.
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Yes pikas are just the best! We saw a couple at the weekend again, the last little critters out and about as the marmots have all gone into hibernation now.
The Tyndall Glacier definitely looked more like ice than snow in 2001 but, yeah, I’m not surprised it’s no longer classified as a glacier. So sad to see them shrink like that!
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I’m glad it finally worked out on your 4th try! It looks like it was worth the wait. Dream Lake is such a great name for this beautiful setting! Your Bear Lake photo actually reminds me of a lake not too far from here. The reflection is beautiful.
I’ve been super busy with work and way behind in my reading/writing so have some catching up to do. Cheers!
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I’ve been to those lakes & wondered what the views would be like from beyond. Now I get the picture. Thank you for that. I enjoyed your narrative & photos.
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Thank you for stopping by, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Once again, you’ve posted an amazing and wonderful chronicle of sheer beauty. The photo ‘looking down at Emerald Lake’ impressed me, I hiked to Emerald in May. It’s really cool to see the lake shore where I had lunch. Really nice perspective. Thank you for your narrative and photographs.
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Thank you for reading! Emerald Lake is a great hike. If you’ve never hiked to it in winter, I highly recommend it!
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Thanks for the tip, I can only imagine! I’ll have to check it out 🙂
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So many beautiful photos, Diana, especially the wonderful reflections of the lake and the one with the marmot; they are such adorable creatures. I am glad to hear you finally made it to Flattop Mountain, Colorado is a seriously beautiful place for anyone who loves being outdoors. Hiking is fun and is a great travel experience, but walking is also an awesome way to immerse yourself in nature for a day and that’s why I miss exploring proper mountains. Thanks for sharing and have a lovely day 🙂 Aiva xx
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Thanks, Aiva! I’m glad I can take you to the mountains virtually for now, and I hope you are able to do some mountain exploring someday soon!
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I’m glad that the fourth time was the charm! And what great weather you had that day: it made for sublime, clear views from the calm of the lake to the overhead lookout from the summit. Flattop Mountain looks to be place that I’d like to hike to, should I return to Colorado!
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You really can’t go wrong with any hike in Rocky, but this would be a good one to really get up high and see the views and experience life at 12,000 feet!
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What great place to see and hike.
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