I made up the Fives Lakes path by stringing together three hikes to pass by five lakes: Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, Emerald Lake, and finally, Lake Haiyaha. I did this hike on a cold, snowy day in RMNP. The Bear Lake parking lot was a third full, and there were rangers answering questions at the parking lot.
I liked Emerald Lake the most because it is beautiful and dramatic, especially on a snowy day. Two photographers nestled down from the cold were there to shoot the frozen lake that day. The perceived remoteness of Emerald Lake or the snowstorm made my experience wonderful. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed my Fives Lakes hike. I rate this hike as easy-moderate because of the distance and snow. This hike is very crowded in the summer, so I suggest the hike in late fall, winter, or early spring.
Bear Lake is beautiful and easy, as is Nymph Lake, which makes them the most popular hikes in RMNP. At least you have to get out of the car to experience the lakes. The Bear Lake parking lot is extensive and, in the summer, is crowded, and the park also runs shuttles. Yikes!
After circumnavigating Bear Lake, I headed to Nymph Lake. I passed multiple people. Everyone had a smile on their face. When I got to Nymph, a woman sat in the middle of the lake on the frozen sheet of thick ice, contemplating the beauty. She waved at me, and I waved back.
Dream Lake was a long skinny lake. An advantage of doing this in winter is shortcutting the trail by walking across the ice. The ice was very thick on all the lakes I visited. There were people sparely distributed all along the hike. As a result, the rail was easy to follow and well-packed, so I just used micro-spikes. Walking across frozen lakes is easier with spikes, as is climbing and descending the short inclines.
Emerald Lake is breathtaking in the snow. I saw a woman settled in taking photos with a great camera and lens setup. She often had to wait for yelling yahoos to get off the lake. In my video, I edited out the inconsiderate.
I headed back to the trail intersection to Lake Haiyaha and went down the trail; however, I noticed few people went down this trail. I had to navigate constantly and post-holed almost every step. I had snowshoes, but the snow was deep enough that I second-guessed why I was doing this lake. If no one was doing this hike, was it worth the effort? I looked at my map and saw another way to get to Lake Haiyaha from the Glacier Gorge TH. Perhaps people used that trail instead of this one. I decided to head back to Bear Lake. The way back was fast as I ran when I could in the snow and yielded to those people ascending the trail. I never used my snowshoes.