Rocky Mountain National Park

We just left Rocky Mountain National Park after spending a glorious week there exploring the region. Just a warning - this post is going to be quite long since I am cramming our entire week into one post! 

The first few days we laid low, spending time working at camp, getting groceries, and exploring Estes Park while my leg healed from the ladder of doom on the Notch Trail back in the Badlands NP.  After I could finally walk without hobbling around, we did a "practice" 1/2 mile hike around Bear Lake.  This is the most popular hike in the park and it was easy to see why.  The lake was beautiful and the trail is very easy - paved and fairly wide the whole way round. That also meant that there were HUNDREDS of people on this trail at the same time.  Not exactly the type of hike we usually look for, but it was pretty and it confirmed that my leg was ready for a "real" hike.

Bear Lake

So, the next day we ventured back to the Bear lake region to hike the 1.8 miles (straight up!) to Emerald Lake (3.6 miles RT).  Because it gets so busy (there are several trail heads in this region) they offer a free hiker shuttle from a large parking lot a few miles away.  It sounded like a great deal until we got there and saw this huge line.

Waiting in line for the shuttle to take us to Bear Lake and our trail head

The park service was on top of their game, though. They had buses running every 5-10 minutes or so, and we didn't have to wait TOO long. However, once on, they make stops at the various major trail heads (I think there are 4 total?) and our trail head was the very last stop. That meant it took us about an hour just to get to start our hike after parking the truck.  

SELFIE!

Once we got there, we finally started our hike. This hike goes up into the mountains past 2 small lakes (Nymph and Dream lakes) with the trail finishing at Emerald lake.  This hike is labeled as "moderate" and the first half (to Emerald Lake) was a consistent climb, often with stairs (boo!) with a total elevation gain of almost 700 feet. 

The lakes and the surrounding area WAS beautiful, but the entire trail was PACKED with people. But, the lake at the end helped make up for the mass of people.  

Emerald Lake

The next day we decided to try a different location (and to go MUCH earlier) to see if we could avoid the crowds a bit.  We chose the 2.8 (5.4 RT) mile hike out to Ouzel falls based on a review we overheard from a local on the trail the previous day. 

So, by 7:45 am we were hiking this gorgeous trail.  We were a little lower in elevation and you could really tell by the different ecosystem from the previous day.  The whole hike takes you along the river/creek past several falls and cascades until you finally reach Ouzel falls.  Along the way you walk through a portion of the forest that was burned in a fire the same year I was born.  It was pretty cool to see an entire "baby" forest that is growing that is the same age as me! 

A forest the same age as me!

We also saw some wildlife including a snowshoe hare, a blue grouse, and a chipmunk.  We heard from the park rangers when we were leaving that some people right before us spotted a black bear and two cubs! I am bummed we didn't get to see a bear!!!

Critters on our hike

This hike was AMAZING. We both loved it. Beautiful scenery, peaceful nature.  Just lovely.  It was  longer than the the Emerald Lake hike, and it actually had more of an elevation gain, but it felt better because A) not very many stairs (have I mentioned that I hate those built in "stairs" using logs in trails?) B) hardly any people on the way up.

Ouzel Falls

We encountered TONS of people on the way back down though and by the time we reached the parking lot, it was completely full - they were having to turn cars away or make them wait for someone to come back out and leave!

Ouzel Falls

The next day we gave our legs a break and drove into Boulder to meet up with Jason's cousin and her husband.  It was great to see her (it has been probably close to 10 years since we have seen her!).  We had a nice lunch and walked around downtown Boulder and chatted.  

Cousin meet-up in Boulder!

For our last full day we chose to hike something completely different - the Ute trail up in the alpine tundra. 

Ute Trail Panorama

It was amazing - we were up at over 11,000 feet and had incredible views of the surrounding mountain ranges - and Estes Park at our turnaround point. 

Images from Ute Trail 

The hike was relatively flat, but at such high altitudes AND having to scramble over rocks the entire hike, it made it a little more of a workout.

The elevation at our highest point in our hike

It was so nice to end our time in RMNP in a completely different type of hike - it allowed us to get into the mountains and see the park from a different point of view - complete with wildlife, like the several Yellow-Bellied Marmots we saw near the trail. 

Some interesting plants and animals in the alpine tundra (including a Yellow-Bellied Marmot and some Rocky Mountain Sunflowers

After our hike, we ventured back into Estes Park to check out the Stanley Hotel. Jason is lucky because I had completely forgotten that the Stanley Hotel was right next to where we are staying. They offer several different tours, including an overnight ghost tour!!! (For those of you who don't know, the show Ghost Hunters went to the Stanley several years ago). If I had remembered in time I would have totally signed us up for that.  As it was, they made us pay $5 to park and then they only allowed us on the grounds and the lobby area of the hotel. They had everything else off limits except for people on tours or guests. It was still pretty cool to be there - it was a beautiful old hotel.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park

We really enjoyed the Rockies, but our RV park, Elk Meadow RV Park, was a little weird. It had some definite pros; the roads and sites were really big and easy to navigate, the buildings on the property were all historical buildings (like the old RMNP lodge that was reassembled on site here), and the RV park was literally on the border of the national park, so that made it very accessible.   But, there were also some cons - there was NO PRIVACY at all. Just a huge open field where we were all parked. Also, they have a million rules and it felt like it wasn't a very friendly environment with a bunch of "don't _______" signs covering everything. Plus, even though they had a ton of rules, they didn't seem to enforce any of them, like not allowing kids under 16 to be in the hot tubs. We did get a view of the mountains out the back, but that also included a view of a storage lot of RVs.  With all that said, it should be noted that we didn't really see anything that looked any better.

Some actual elk at the edge of the RV park!

We had a great time in the park area but were definitely ready to move onto our next adventure!