RMNP: Sky Pond and optional Mills Lake

HIKE DESCRIPTION: The hike to Sky Pond features some of the best views in Rocky Mountain National Park. The trek begins at the Glacier Gorge Trailhead along Bear Lake Road. You'll also stop by several other sought-after spots including Alberta Falls, The Loch (also known as Loch Vale), Lake of Glass, and Timberline Falls. This route takes you by some of the prettiest alpine lakes in the national park. Optionally, depending on the hike's progress we can add Mills Lake on the way back (adds a mile). NO DOGS are allowed in RMNP.

HIKE STATS: Difficulty: Hard. Distance: 8.6 miles. Elevation gain: 1,774 feet.
ALL TRAILS: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/sky-pond-via-glacier-gorge-trail

MEETING UP: The trail is popular and the parking lot usually fills up early during the peak summer season. We will meet up at Estes Park Visitor Parking Garage at 5 am and carpool from here. We will try to park at Glacier Gorge trailhead. Since the parking lot is small we might need to park at Bear Lake bigger parking lot next to it and hike from there (similar hike length and difficulty).

TIMED ENTRY PERMIT: To get an access to the park, we need a daily ticket (per car, can be purchased at the ticket booth) or America The Beautiful Pass. We also need a timed entry + bear lake corridor pass for June 6th. I have America The Beautiful pass and the required timed entry pass for the day. Depending on the number of participants/cars and timed entry permits we are able to get for the date, we might decide to enter the park prior to 5 am as timed entry permit is not required. The meet up time will be changed to 4:30 am in this case. Timed entry permits are $2 and they will be available for sale again on June 5th at 7 PM MDT. Link to purchase: https://www.recreation.gov/timed-entry/10086910/ticket/10086912

IMPORTANT: Please, review the group bio for what you should bring to the hike and other important information. We wait 5 minutes for late arrive to be considerate to those arriving on time.