Rocky Mountain National Park

September 20,21,22 2023

Tim and I have been to RMNP before, but we were eager to return.

I love RMNP because there is so much to see and do here!

One thing I DON’T love is the permit system you need to enter the park now.

If you don’t have a permit, and you want to do the Bear Lake Corridor, (where most of the popular hikes are) you have to be in the park before 5 AM or after 2 PM.

As many of you may know, we ordered our van in October 2022. We never got a delivery date and then it arrived at the dealer in July.

The National Parks release camp sites 6 months in advance. With the popularity of many of the parks, you can’t get a site reservation with a 2 month lead time.

When I was planning our trip to RMNP, there were no sites available. I kept checking back daily and one day there was a cancellation for 1 day in Timber Creek campground. I jumped on it. A few days later there was another cancellation for the same campground one day later.

So we had 2 nights in a row in the park. Since we are visiting some friends in the area as well, we were good with that.

I read that you still needed a time entry pass for The Bear Lake Corridor, and I could only get a reservation for 2 PM or later. If you want to do longer hikes in the fall, you need to start before 2 PM!

Oh well! We knew we would have to work with what we had, because we weren’t going to be in the park from Denver by 5 AM! We are retired!

We camped in the van at a friend’s house Monday night. Tim’s friend John decided to come camp with us.

We got to Estes Park about 11 AM, and the earliest we could enter the park was noon because we had a camping reservation.

We pulled into a city park to make a sandwich and there was a bull elk and 2 females right near our parking space! We enjoyed watching them while we ate!

Next, we entered RMNP and went to the visitor’s center. We stamped our passport and watched the film.

Then we approached the entrance where we had to show our pass. We got there about 12:30. The ranger gave us a little teasing, but he kindly let us in early.

We parked at the Bear Lake Shuttle since it said the lots were full. We arrived at the trail head and had a lovely, leisurely hike to Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes. We saw a moose, several beautiful Stellar’s Jays, some Magpies and lots of chipmunks.

After hiking we drove to the other side of the park via the Trail Ridge Road.

Trail Ridge Road is a 47 mile scenic drive from Estes Park to Grand Lake. The drive is a bit of a nail biter! It is the highest continuously paved highway in North America. The views are extremely beautiful, but there are sections with no guard rail and steep drop offs. There are a good number of pull off spots though to enjoy the views.

Although it wasn’t our first choice to stay on the west side of the park, we were very happy we were!! It is much less congested!

We had a lovely campsite. We’re enjoyed dinner and a campfire!

We kind of had our first “glitch” of the trip- It got down to the 30s that night and our portable heater wouldn’t work. We had a back up plan though. Our electric blanket kept us comfy.

We heard elk bugling through the night.

The next day after a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and hot cocoa, we set off on some hikes.

We did the Adams Falls hike, a gorgeous .8 mile stroll along a stream with a waterfall near stunning Grand Lake. We spent a bit of time in the town of Grand Lake. It was a little touristy, but much less crowded than Estes Park.

We went back to our campsite, because we had to move to a different site. The people in the site from the previous night were about to depart. It was a group of 8 students from Colorado College setting out for a 4 day backpacking trip. It sounded fun!

After lunch, we hiked the Coyote Valley Trail about 1.5 miles and enjoyed walking along the Colorado River.

We got back to our campsite and made a fire and we looked up to see a group of 9 female elk along the road. We figure there probably was a bull there too, but we never saw him.

Another chilly night. We packed up in the AM and headed back to civilization. We had to go back over the Trail Ridge Road. We noticed that the Aspen trees had turned more golden while we were there! As we exited the park, the back up of traffic to get in was at least a mile long!

Back in Boulder , we learned that the reason the portable heater wasn’t working, was we were at too high of an elevation. The pilot light went getting enough oxygen! Next we walked along Pearl Street and after lunch did one of our favorite holes – Mount Sanitas – a 3.2 mile loop with very good elevation gain. There are beautiful views of Boulder from the summit. We camped again in John’s driveway.

Sunday we explored the Chataqua area, and explored the Flat Irons Hiking area near Boulder with cycling friends Amy and The Scott and their dog, Apollo. The trails are near Colorado University. There are many trails off varying difficulty in this general area!