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Submission
Only done this in the winter, but some excellent snowshoeing up all the trails on the junction. Alberta falls was completely frozen over, so no good view there, but the lakes above are still beautiful in the dead of winter!
We went on a Friday and it was packed. But we were able to get a bus quickly (they are constantly running). Bear Creek was the busiest of all of them, so I was glad we did the Glacier Gorge. It was still busy but not like Bear Creek. Beautiful day and we did a 6 mile hike and we made it to Glacier Lake. It was worth it.
From this trailhead, we hiked the short distance out to Alberta Falls and back. The hike itself was excellent. From the trailhead, you gain less than 300' in elevation, so it's only about a 6% average grade, with no painfully steep sections. The scenery along the way is beautiful, but the main attraction are the falls themselves. Thanks to the relatively short & easy hike, this is one of the most popular attractions along Bear Lake Corridor.
With 20/20 hindsight, we should've skipped this trailhead altogether. We hiked Bear/Nymph/Dream/Emerald Lakes in the morning, then headed back to the Park & Ride to grab our lunch, then back up to Glacier Gorge for this trail. It would've been nearly the same amount of hiking, and less time waiting in line for and riding on shuttles, had we just gone straight from the Bear Lake lot back toward Alberta Falls. Oh well, live and learn. Still a nice trail.
The one complaint I would have would be with the organization of the shuttle riders heading from Glacier Gorge back down toward Bierstadt Lake and the Park & Ride. There was no effort to keep a decent queue the way it was up at Bear Lake or at the Park & Ride. It was just a free-for-all, with the volunteer directing buses only saying "let people here first on first" but not actually doing anything to keep late-comers from getting on before people waiting longer.
