Did these two lakes in tandem with Ashalnd Lakes which is off the same FS road. The road is in ok condition with some large potholes/small washouts to deal with. A high clearance vehicle is recommended, but there were some sedans in the parking lot. There is not a lot of parking at the trailhead either.
The hike itself is very nice and there are some great views as one ascends up to the lake. There was about 2 inches of snow for the last 2/3 of the trail up to the lake. The snow was not hard to cross but it was packed down to ice in some places and micro spikes made the trip a lot easier. The lake is very nice and had a thin layer of ice over the entire surface. I imagine in a week or two, the lake and most of the trail will be covered in more snow.
All together the hike took around 3 hours with a few short stops to change up clothing/spikes and a few detours to look at views or because of trail rerouting due to trees or poor trail markings.
Note: Someone camped overnight at Bear Lake and left a smoldering fire. Even with wet conditions, please full extinguish any fires. I had to put it out since it was still hot enough to create a flame when I turned over one of the logs.
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