Rocky Mountain NP — Day 3

Our guide book (Erik Stensland's "Hiking Rocky Mountain National Park") offered several good choices for our final day here.  We settled on the "Odessa Hike," with a one-way distance of 9.2 miles, 1400 feet of climbing and 2700 feet of descent.  The shuttle system enabled this hike, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to bridge the space between the end and the beginning on the return.  The entirety of the hike was very nice.  Parts were spectacular, especially the early-morning views across Bear Lake just beyond the trailhead, and a wonderful overlook as we crested at 10,700 feet, about 3 miles in.  Trail traffic was comfortable.  We made our earliest start of the visit, getting to the trailhead at 8:30 AM, which allowed us to drive directly to the Bear Lake trailhead, where the popularity is so great that the very large lot has been filling by about 9 AM.  We also experienced our only meaningful rain during the three days of hiking.  Fortunately, it was just frequent light sprinkles that only left us uncertain about whether or not to bring out our more protective clothing.  Overall, the three days of hiking were great and each day was better than the one before.