Palisades Lakes — Sunday, Sep. 28, 2025

This is one of my favorite hikes for fall foliage especially before sunrise closes for the winter. Colors were muted this year and the berries are picked or dried up but the bears are out and about! We saw mama and her cub at Clover Lake and kept our distance as they were on the trail to Dick lake. She kept eyeing us and our kids were nervous, especially our 3 year old, so we watched for a bit then went back to Sunrise lake for lunch. Had hoped to go to Hidden Lake today as it’s one of my favorites but it wasn’t in the cards. The trail was fairly busy. Others reported seeing another lone bear and another cub but we only saw the one set. Be bear aware here they are munching the berries in preparation for winter! Mama is the brown spot in the meadow photo she kept popping up and looking at us.