Rocky Mountain National Park

While in Colorado at Odyssey Pilot Hours, I invited Andrew to join me for the drive home. He liked the idea and bought himself a plane ticket. I picked him up from the Denver airport yesterday. We took the train from the airport, stopped in downtown Denver, and visited the Erie airport. I showed him the planes that I'd been flying, but it was too late to take him for a flight. Today, we set off for Rocky Mountain National Park.

National Parks require some amount of planning to avoid surprise. The Rocky Mountain National Park requires visitors to have a reservation that allows you in at a certain time. We tried to get a reservation, but the website didn’t appear to be working. We read that you can enter the park either before or after the reservation window. We chose to be at the main gate before the 9:00 AM reservation window opened.

The drive to Estes was about an hour from our motel in Longmont and we left just after 7:00 AM. We arrived at the gate around 8:15 AM. We wanted to go to the Fall River Visitor Center prior to entering the park, but it didn’t open until 9:00 AM. We couldn’t go else we would miss our chance to get in the park before the reservation window. Instead, we planned to go there on the way out of the park.

Rocky Mountain National Park entrance at Fall River

At the gate, we paid the entrance fee, and the ranger gave us a map of the park. Now that we were in, there was no leaving until after 2:00 PM, else we wouldn't be allowed back in until after 6:00 PM.

Rocky Mountain National Park map

With that option out, our new plan was to drive to the Alpine Visitor Center at the high point of the park. It opened at 10:00 AM, so we had plenty of time to visit a few overlooks along the route.

Our first stop was at Many Parks Curve. We parked in a parking lot that was beyond the overlook and walked back. Being that this was our first time out of the car, we realized that maybe we weren't dressed properly for the conditions. Luckily, we both had light jackets to block some of the wind, but it was still pretty chilly. From the overlook, we could see to the east, north, and west. Since the sun was in the east, the view to the west was the best. We figured we’d see the nice east view on the way back out of the park.

Looking northwest from Many Parks Curve

Back in the car, we continued climbing. In many spots, the road was a vertical cliff on one side and a drop off on the other. It reminded me of driving through Mt. Rainier National Park with Aunt Patti; she loved the views but didn't care much for the steep drops.

Our next stop was the Forest Canyon Overlook. We were now above the tree line, thus the term 'alpine' applies.

Looking west from Forest Canyon Overlook

Looking west from Forest Canyon Overlook

Our next stop was the Lava Cliffs Overlook. We were now above the snow. There's something about the sight of snow that makes everything feel colder, as if it wasn't already cold enough. While looking around, we noticed that something was moving out in the distance. With the help of the binoculars, we determined that it was a marmot. There is obviously a lot of wildlife in the park. I wondered what other animals we might see.

Looking north from Lava Cliffs Overlook

As we continued our climb, the scenery changed drastically. It was completely different than before. It was like we were passing through a very large meadow along a ridgeline. There were no trees, and the surface was covered mostly with rocks.

Driving through the alpine area

Our next stop was the Gore Range Overlook. This is the highest point on the road through the park. From this point, you have an unimpeded view to the west.

Panorama from Gore Range Overlook

The next stop on the map was the Alpine Visitor Center. It was now past 10:00 AM, so it was definitely open. As we descended from the Gore Range Overlook, we saw a line of cars along the right side of the road. My first thought was that there must be animals along the road. No, there was no animal. This was the line to get into the parking lot. Apparently, there's a large rush of visitors to get to the Visitor Center before it opens. So, we decided to keep going and come back here later.

Our next stop was the Lake Irene Picnic Area. We found a parking spot near the picnic tables, then started hiking down towards the lake. Along the trail, we ran into a ranger and a volunteer. We talked to them for quite a while, until some other hikers arrived. They told us about the rush to get to the Alpine Visitor Center, and that the best time is between the morning and afternoon rushes. Continuing down the trail, we passed the lake and came to an opening meadow with a view to the west. Here we turned around and followed a different trail up the opposite side of the lake.

Lake Irene

Looking west along the Lake Irene trail

Back in the parking lot, we pulled out the cooler and the dry goods box and carried them to a nearby picnic table. We had the choice of tables in the sun or in the shade. After all the chilly air up on top of the mountains, it was nice to soak in the sun while we ate.

After lunch, we packed up our stuff and headed south along the road. We passed by a few sites that looked interesting, but we continued all the way to the southwest entrance of the park. As I mentioned before, we couldn't leave, else we wouldn't be able to get back in until later, so we didn't get to stop at the Kawuneeche Visitor Center. We were near this entrance during our first Utah trip. During that trip, we drove into Colorado and stayed in Granby for a few days. The park was closed at that time; else we would have entered then.

After turning around, we headed back towards the Colorado River Trailhead. Soon we came upon a car stopped in the road. Again, I wondered if there was an animal spotting. This time there was! Right beside the road was a mother moose and her calf.

With are excitement ratcheted up a few notches, we continued toward the trailhead. We stopped and walked the short distance to the river. At this point, the Colorado River is more of a creek. It's hard to imagine that this is the same Colorado River that passes through Utah and the Grand Canyon.

We continued up the trail while keeping a close eye on what appeared to be a building storm. Soon we came upon a gathering of people. As we approached, we realized that there was another mother moose, and she also had a calf walking along the river. The mother crossed the river, leaving the calf on the far bank. The calf looked nervous about being left behind. After a few moments of hesitation, the calf took a leap and entered the river with a splash. Unfortunately, Andrew missed that moment by just a second in his video.

We soon turned around and returned to the car. The clouds were looking more threatening by the minute, and we didn't want to get caught out in a storm. We continued driving back up the mountain towards the Alpine Visitor Center.

When we arrived at the visitor center, the parking lot was half empty. We easily found a parking spot close to the main entrance. Inside, I was hoping to find an exhibit of local wildlife, but it was just a gift shop, but with a stunning view. Next to the visitor center was a restaurant and an even bigger gift shop. I was hoping to get a nice cup of hot chocolate, but when I asked if it was milk-based, the kid behind the counter said it was water-based. No thanks.

Back outside, we had a decision to make - climb the trail and risk a storm, or not. While we decided, we ran into a couple who had just driven up the old, one-lane dirt road. Apparently, it is narrow and steep but easily handled by a minivan. They told us about seeing elk along that road. After seeing four moose - which was completely unexpected - I was really itching to see a herd of elk.

The storm clouds appeared to be staying to the north, so we decided to take the trail to the top of the park. It was a nice trail, consisting of hundreds of steps. At that elevation, breathing was difficult, so I had to take a few breaks along the way. Eventually we reached the top and enjoyed the view in all directions.

View of the Alpine Visitor Center

The highest accessible point in the park

On the way back down the mountain, we passed by the overlooks that we stopped at on the way up. We eventually reached the Beaver Ponds. That sounded interesting to me, based on my experience with beaver ponds in Grand Tetons National Park. We stopped and walked the short boardwalk trail into the marshes. At the end, we didn't see anything, so we returned to the car, somewhat disappointed.

Our next stop was the Endovalley Picnic Area. It was off of a side road that we purposefully skipped on the way up in our attempt to reach the Alpine Visitor Center when it opened. We weren't really sure what there was to do there, but we stopped anyway. It was at the end of the paved road and marked the beginning of the one-lane dirt road that leads up to the visitor center. We got out and tried to figure out if there was a short hike starting there, but it soon started to rain. We tried to wait it out, but after five minutes, we made a run for the car.

This side road also had the Alluvial Fan and Horseshoe Falls Trailhead. The fan is an interesting area where a large pile of rock debris lies at the foot of the mountain. There's a very interesting story about it, that it included here:

In 1982 a breach in the earthen dam at Lawn Lake brought down a devastating wall of water sweeping vegetation and debris that would eventually form the Alluvial Fan as we see it today. The boulder field and sediment surrounding the Alluvial Fan are remnants of this destructive event.

Horseshoe Falls

Looking down at the Alluvial Fan

Back on the main road, our next stop was Sheep Lakes. It is here that I absolutely expected to see a herd of elk. Instead, we saw three big horn sheep crossing the road.

By this time, it was approaching 6:00 PM. This meant that we could leave the park and come back in if we chose. This is when we planned to visit the Fall River Visitor Center, so that's what we did. When we arrived, we realized that it was already closed! We were shocked and sad. But after a quick search, Andrew discovered that the Estes Park Visitor Center was open until 7:00 PM. We hurried into town and arrived about 20 minutes before they closed.

The Estes Park Visitor Center was more of what I expected a visitor center to be. They had a large, 3D map of the park that showed all the roads and peaks. They also had souvenirs and cute, stuffed animals, but they didn't have local stuffed animals. They were showing a screening of the park history, so we went in and watched the last 10 minutes of it. We were the only ones in the room.

At 7:00 PM, we left and headed for the Bear Lake entrance. There was no line at first, but when the road split off from the main road, we ran into a small backup of cars. As we sat there, we wondered why there was a backup at all. As we inched forward, we realized that there were no rangers in the booth. Then it donned on us. The backup was caused by two extremely violent speed bumps that they had across the road. 

We followed the road up to the Bear Lake parking lot. It became obvious that this part of the park is more rugged than what we saw earlier. This part of the park is where the serious hikes begin. I doubted that we'd find any trails short enough to do in the amount of daylight that we had left. The parking lot was huge, but mostly empty. They get so many visitors to this part of the park that they have a shuttle bus that runs to another parking lot further from the trailheads. We parked and walked several hundred yards in the parking lot before reaching the bus stop and the trailheads. When we saw the sign, we laughed out loud. The Bear Lake trail was measured in feet, not miles. That's the one we chose to take.

Looking south from Bear Lake parking lot

Hiking trail choices at Bear Lake

Looking northeast from Bear Lake

Back in the car, we still had some time before it got dark. We decided to go back to Many Parks Curve and see if the view to the east was any better. We also hoped to see some elk along the road. We stopped at the overlook, then continued back down to the Fall River entrance. We didn't see any signs of elk along the way. We left the park, excited about what we did see, but still a little bummed about the lack of elk sightings.

Back in Estes Park, we chose to take a different route home than the way we came because I wanted to stop at the In-N-Out in Loveland. The route we chose followed closely along the Big Thompson River. In many places, there was barely enough room for the road and the river to fit between the high cliffs of the narrow canyon. Occasionally the canyon would widen out and have enough room for a pull off for tourists and fishers. As we approached one of these pull offs, we saw a line of vehicles parked. As I passed, we noticed two very large male elk munching on tree branches, right beside the road. I was so shocked that I didn't know what to do. There were already cars in the pull out and I was going a bit too fast to stop suddenly. We ended up driving by, our jaws dropped open. After a full day in the Rocky Mountain National Park, without seeing any signs of elk, we now saw two bull elk standing 10 feet from us, and we didn't even stop. Wow, what a day!

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Click the link to see all of the pictures from this trip: Rocky Mountain National Park.