SnapshotPlanning Your VisitWhen we visited the park We visited the park in mid-June. This is the earliest I would recommend visiting the park. The Trail Ridge Road and Alpine Visitor Center had just opened for the season the week before we went. Prior to that, we would have had limited access to the park on the east side, and no way to travel across the whole park. The weather was also perfect for hiking and exploring outside; chilly in the morning and higher altitudes, and warm in the afternoon. We also so young wildlife while we were there in the late spring. Things to Consider 1. The first thing to know is, ticked entry reservations are required to enter the park during the summer months. You also need a specific ticket if you are trying to access the popular Bear Lake branch of the park. Tickets cost $2 and sell out fast. Make sure to login early the morning tickets go on sale at recreation.gov or the night before your travel date. Tickets quickly sell out, and you are required to enter at the designated time on your ticket. 2. The best time of year to travel, in my opinion, is early summer. The main road through the park doesn't open until early June usually. If you plan to see the whole park, you need to do so in the summer, otherwise, you will be limited to the east or west side. Unless you plan to drive around the entire park. Plan for snow to be present in high elevations of the park during this time, and bring layers. 3. Plan on using the shuttle system in the park for popular areas. The parking lot for Dream Lake was filled early, so we use the shuttle. It added time to our trip, but it was worth using to get to see things on our bucket list. 4. Bring layers, because the climate changes quickly in this park, depending on where you are visiting. The higher elevations areas (Alpine Visitor Center) was very cold, windy, and misty. Jackets or sweatshirts are recommended here. 5. Wildlife viewing is a common thing to run into here. Plan for slower traffic if animals are near the road. If not, give the animals their space. How to Get There From Denver (East)Take I-25 north to Exit 217 (US Hwy 36) to Estes Park. An alternate route is to take Exit 243 (Hwy 66) from I-25 north and head into Estes Park that way. From Estes Park, follow the signs to Rocky Mountain National Park entrance. From Denver (West) Take I-70 to exit 232 (Empire) to US Hwy 40 to Granby to US Hwy 34 to Grand Lake. During the winter, US Hwy 40 can close or have restrictions due to snow. Additional Maps Provided by the Park Where to Stay Inside the Park (Camping Only) Aspenglen Campground This 51-site campground is located near the Fall River entrance on the northeast side of the park. There are non electric sites available to rent for $35 a night. There is drinking water here, flush toilets, and some sites allow generators. Moraine Park Campground This 236-site campground is located in the popular Moraine Park area, on the east side. This is centrally located to access popular hiking trails, facilities, and wildlife. There are non electric sites available to rent for $35 a night. This is a large campground and water and flush toilets are available. Glacier Basin Campground This 146-site campground is located along the Bear Lake corridor in the park, which is a popular hiking area. This road does require a specific reservation to access, so camping here would gain you entry. It is located right across from the park and ride, for easy access to the shuttle system. There are non electric sites available to rent for $35 a night. This is a large campground and water and flush toilets are available. Park Timber Creek Campground This 81-site campground is the only campground located on the west side of the park, near Grand Lake. There are non electric sites available to rent for $35 a night. This is a large campground and water and flush toilets are available. This is limited shade at this campground, so plan accordingly. Outside the Park The Estes Park Resort The resort on Estes Lake offers beautiful scenery, a variety of rooms, and accessible location for attractions in downtown Estes Park. It is located near the east entrances to Rocky Mountain National Park. They offer cabin rentals as well, and relaxation at the on-site spa. This is one luxury you can spoil yourself with. Grand Lake Lodge The lodge is a beautiful place to stay and rest while visiting the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park. It sits along Grand Lake, with stunning views of the scenery. They offer (restored) historic cabin rentals on their property, on-site restaurants, and family friendly activities while you stay in a wilderness setting. What We Did We spent one day in Rocky Mountain National Park, and prioritized the things we wanted to see the most. To be completely honest, I changed all of our plans the week before we were supposed to go because the park had limited access with snow in higher elevations. Within that week, Trail Ridge Road and Alpine Visitor Center opened, so changing everything turned out to be not needed. The one thing we did give up that I had hoped to do was staying in a Sears & Roebucks Cabin in Grand Lake. Otherwise, we got to see most of the things we had planned. Because of this change, we only stayed on the east side of the park, and never made it to the west end. We decided to enter through the northeast entrance by Fall River Visitor Center. This allowed us to stop at Sheep Lakes area to look for wildlife. While we were there we spotted a young moose in the trees. We had hoped to see big horn sheep, but they were not out that morning. Next, we drove down to the Bear Lake corridor of the park. If you want to get to Bear Lake as early as possible to avoid large crowds, you will want to enter the park on Hwy 36 by the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center. A reminder, that there is a ranger station set up checking passes here. You are not able to access this road or hikes (summer season only) without a specific pass. You can get the pass on recreation.gov, linked above. Once you are past the ranger station, you have access to some of the most popular hikes in the park. There were signs posted that the Bear Lake parking lot was full, and it was being monitored by park rangers. We decided to stop at Glacier Basin park and ride, then use the park shuttle to get us the rest of the way. This definitely added time to our day, but there wasn't really an alternative option. We rode the shuttle all the way to the Bear Lake (the last stop), because that was our preferred hike while we were in the park. This is a very busy part of the park, so anticipate crowds of people, with varying outdoor experience. There was a pop-up ranger area here with information about the hikes in the area, wildlife, and interactive kids area. There is also water filling stations here, so make sure you have plenty of water before you head out on the trails. The hike for Bear Lake is the closest to the shuttle stop, just a couple hundred feet. If that is all you plan to see here, it is worth the stop. You can hike to a viewpoint a a couple hundred feet and turn around, or you can continue walking a flat path around the lake. This is largely shaded, and a pleasant hike. We decided to head to Dream Lake, with Emerald Lake being our ultimate goal. This was about a 3 mile hike, round trip. We had originally hoped to hike to Lake Hiayaha, however the ranger said the trails were snow and ice covered and without spikes, it would be a really unsafe journey, especially with kids. Most of the hike is the same path anyways, we just didn't turn off at Dream Lake to Lake Hiayaha, and instead continued on to Emerald Lake. We started hiking, and quickly realized that the whole way out to the lakes was ALL up hill. There are spots along the way to step off to the side and take a rest or catch your breath, but be prepared for some elevation gain. By the time we were done hiking, my app said we made about a 800 foot elevation change. About 1-mile into the hike, we came to the first stop, Nymph Lake. This is a small lake, surrounded by pines. We stepped aside here and my daughter quickly spotted an elk across the lake, coming to the shore for some water. We sat and watched it for a bit before continuing on. The upward climb did lead us to some beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains and surprising waterfalls along the way. Our next stop was the famous Dream Lake. Right before we reached the lake, we started to encounter snow on the ground. It wasn't over the trails, but was becoming more present in shaded areas. This was a very popular place with a lot of people gathering around. We found a spot on the west shoreline to sit and have a snack. We continued walking along the path along the Dream Lake shores, and spotted greenback cutthroat trout and fly fishermen attempting to catch this rare species. We probably saw a dozen as we walked along the shore, and enjoyed watching them rise and search for food. As we reached the far east end of the lake, we did a little rock scrambling to find a beautiful lookout of the surrounding mountains. It was far less crowded on this end of the lake, and worth the extra five minute walk. We continued on until we got to Emerald Lake, maybe another half mile walk. This is when snow really started to become an issue on the trails. There were spots that were iced over and hard to hike up, spots that were completely covered and you sunk into, and other spots that were a muddy mess. It was worth it, but it made the last part of this hike slower and a bit more challenging. Emerald Lake though, was beautiful. It had limited shore access, but we still managed to find some quiet to sit and enjoy the views. There was a brave yellow-bellied marmot roaming around. He had no fear of humans and would walk right up to bags or people and try to steal food. He was a fun bit of entertainment while we rested and prepared for the hike down the mountain. Our hike down the mountain was much quicker than the hike up. There were less people heading down at the time we were, so that also helped. We also didn't have to take as many breaks because we only headed down, instead of up. It was another way to take in the beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains and appreciate our accomplishment of reaching Emerald Lake. When we got back to the shuttle area, we only had to wait about five minutes for a shuttle. Heading back to the park and ride was way quicker than trying to head to Bear Lake. The shuttle also makes a couple other stops. The Bierstadt Lake Trail looked like an amazing place to hike, and far less busy. On a return trip, I would like to stop here. The Sprague Lake is also a great hike, that I had done on a previous trip. There is a shuttle stop for this as well. The one hike we didn't have time for, (because the shuttles added more time to our anticipated trip) was the Alberta Falls Trail. This is a shuttle stop at Glacier Gorge, and a easy hike out to the falls. This is still on my things to see at Rocky Mountain. For some of the less popular hikes along here, I would recommend bear spray, sunscreen, and extra water for your hikes. The final thing on our agenda for the day was visiting Alpine Visitor Center, (the highest elevation visitor center in the NPS system) which had just opened for the season the week before. We knew this meant driving a mountain road with switchbacks along Trail Ridge Road. It is a stunning drive with overlooks, waterfalls, and wildlife along the drive. There are some great hiking trails and turnoffs here as well. If you decide to drive this, bring binoculars and a warm coat. The weather varies greatly in high elevations, and cooled off with a slight mist while we were up there. It was about an hour drive from Bear Lake to Alpine Visitor Center. Along the way we stopped at Rainbow Curve and Rock Cut to walk around a bit. We also saw a couple of herds of Elk along the drive in the high elevations. When we got to Alpine Visitor Center, we enjoyed the gift shop, walking a bit of the Alpine Trail, and getting lunch in the food court. There was limited access to bathrooms here, so be aware of this depending on the time of year you visit. It was also very windy up here, and sweatshirts or coats (maybe even hats) would be recommended if you plan to walk around here. Wildside Jeep Tours The one thing we had considered doing was scheduling a Jeep tour of the park. We opted out because we changed our plans last minute, but also, there were age requirements. If you have children over the age of six, I would recommend checking out Wildside 4x4 Tours. We saw these everywhere in the park, and they looked like a fun and engaging time to learn about the park, wildlife, and see the scenery. They have a variety of tours available, depending on your interests and adventurous nature. It is something we will look into on a return trip. Where this fit in our Road Trip This was our last stop on our road trip in Wyoming and Colorado. We were running on fumes at this point and realizing that the trip should have probably been two weeks or two separate trips. The night before we had stayed at The Origin, Red rocks in Golden, CO (just over an hour drive). We made the most of our day in the park, and enjoyed visiting most areas accessible by car. After this, we began the long drive home. NPS App and All Trails Maps I highly recommend using the National Park Service (NPS) App, as well as the All Trails App for hiking. There is limited service in the park, so planning ahead is helpful. These two apps allow you to download sights, maps, and trails so that you can access information anywhere. The NPS app also links to the full National Parks Website, with a plethora of information. Don't forget to follow along on Instagram @wanderlust_with_three
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