My two cents on Odessa lake
If a higher power presented me with the option (unfairly, of course) of getting to hike only one lake in Rocky Mountain National Park for the rest of my days, I would pick Odessa lake.
I first beheld Odessa on a particular evening, sometime in October 2023. I started from the Bear Lake trailhead at around 4 pm in the evening and power-hiked / ran to Odessa lake. I had never been to the lake before, but with my sense of familiarity with the region (and my trustworthy AllTrails offline map), I was not all that worried when the sun began to set beyond the peaks looming to the West. It was during this hour, after around 3 miles of moving, that I approached a lake to the side of the main trail.
It was Lake Helene.
For a lake that I had never heard of before, this one was beautiful and rather impressive in terms of area as well. I stood by the lake shore for a bit and then headed down to Odessa Lake
(Yes, down to the lake)
From Lake Helene, the descent to Odessa began. It was a nice, quick descent for me (slowed down a bit due to snow patches here and there). The view of the mountains to the West captivated me enough to stop my Garmin, forget about my pace and then take frequent photo stops to document the peaks basking in the final light of the setting sun.
I made it to the lake at around 7 pm and I can describe the view as jawdropping.
The view of Little Matterhorn looming above me was the highlight of the view. This peak is steep, pointy and appears extremely prominent from one’s perspective down at the lake. This reminded me of the majestic monoliths that one would find in some place up in Northern Montana.
And the best part of this all was that – I had the lake to myself. I sat there for a bit. I don’t recall what I thought about back then, but the 700 foot ascent to Helene might’ve been on the list.
The light was fading every passing minute, so I headed back up. It was a bit of a slog, but I made it in like 20 minutes.
After that, it was a super fun run down to the Bear lake trailhead.
The solitude of this trail was a definite plus for me. But, this could definitely be due to the time of year/time of day I picked. The trail could be fairly busy during the summer weekends. But, still not as busy as Dream lake or the Loch since this one is more secluded and even tougher if comparing.
I have been to the lake several times since, opting to use the standard / more popular route via Fern lake. This route is similar in terms of length but very different when it comes to the overall feel of the trail – more of which I talk about in this post.
