Cub Lake Trail

Cub Lake is the easy lake in Moraine Park: 2.3 miles from the Cub Lake trailhead across the meadows, past beaver ponds and through aspen, to a small lake covered in yellow pond lilies in July. It climbs 540 feet so gently that it hardly counts, it stays quieter than anything on Bear Lake Road, and with the Fern Lake trail it makes a 6-mile loop past The Pool.

From the Cub Lake trailhead, the trail crosses the Big Thompson on a footbridge and skirts the west edge of Moraine Park's meadow, where the elk graze in the evening, then follows a chain of beaver ponds south with the Fern Lake valley opening ahead. The trail climbs gently through aspen and over a low ridge, with the rock walls of the valley above.

Cub Lake sits in a basin of ponderosa and burned snags at 8,620 feet, its surface covered in lilies through midsummer and with the peaks of the Divide behind. The trail continues past the lake and climbs a short way before dropping to the Fern Lake trail at The Pool, which makes the loop back to the Fern Lake trailhead and the shuttle. Return the same way for the 4.6-mile version.

The Cub Lake trailhead is on Fern Lake Road in Moraine Park, off Bear Lake Road. In summer the road beyond the trailhead is closed to private vehicles and the park shuttle stops at the Cub Lake and Fern Lake stops from the Park and Ride and Moraine Park. The Bear Lake corridor timed-entry permit and the park entrance fee apply. The small lot fills by 8 AM. Toilets at the trailhead.

No dogs anywhere on park trails. The gentle grade and the beaver ponds make it one of the best trails in the park for kids. Carry water; the ponds are not drinkable. The area burned in the 2012 Fern Lake Fire and again in 2020, and the standing snags around the lake fall in wind. Mosquitoes are thick at the lake in July. Estes Park is 15 minutes away. Fern Lake shares the loop, and the RMNP region page has the permit details.