Rocky Mountain National Park (2023)

Starting off easy

We flew into Denver (duh!) and drove toward the mountains. We passed through Boulder to stop at REI to pick up a few things (almost forgot stove fuel). Driving along US 36, we turned at route 7 for a more scenic route. Also, along route 7 we had to stop by Lily Lake and Lily Mountain before you officially enter the park. It’s an easy stroll around the lake and a great open area for pictures.

Lily Lake is also at a trailhead for Longs Peak which we were interested in climbing. It would likely take us an entire day to complete, so we wound up saving it for the next visit.

Bear Lake

After entering the park, our first stop was Bear Lake. It’s right in the center of the park at the end of the road. It’s very crowded. Luckily my better half planned ahead and made sure we had access to the Bear Lake Road Corridor.

Red Tape

With how crowded the park is during the Summer, the park has instituted a “Timed Entry Permit” system to limit the number of vehicles that utilize the road. However, if you are camping in the park, you can enter the road as you please.

We hiked (if you can call it that) 3/4 mile loop around the lake. It is very scenic. What I found most interesting about Bear Lake is how it is the nexus for so many trails within the park. Depending on the trail you choose, you can hike to alpine lakes, through valleys, along streams, summit mountains, and cross the continental divide starting from Bear Lake. On our first day, we started with a nice warm-up by circling the lake. We would return for a longer hike on another day.

Campground

We camped for 3 nights at the Aspenglen Campground (loop A, site E) – highly recommended. It’s just inside the park at the Fall River Entrance, however the Fall River entrance was closed for construction so this limited car traffic and made it extra peaceful.

Site-seeing: I decided since I am 3 months overdue in posting this, I’ll just post some pictures. Maybe one day I will come back and add some details. The pictures below are in order of how we toured the park.

Day 1

Old Fall River Road

Trail Ridge Road

Old Fall River Road ends at the Alpine Visitor Center (tourist trap) and then turns onto Trail Ridge Road. We continued West toward the Continental Divide.

Colorado River Trail

We were trying to hike upstream to Lulu City but after a couple miles the weather didn’t look great so we turned back early. We made it to an abandoned cabin past Hitchings Gulch. Not sure of the name of it.

After our hike along the Colorado River Trail, we continued South along Trail Ridge Road. When I visited Rocky Mountain in 2019 I really enjoyed the Western part of the park. I remembered it being far less crowded and the valley being wide open. Unfortunately there was a wild fire in 2020 that torched much of the Western side of the park. It was sad to see. We walked under the charred trees for a few minutes, perhaps trying to imagine how it would have been to walk there just a few years earlier.

Needless to say, there was even less of a crowd around the Western portion of Trail Ridge Road. There wasn’t much to see now that the forest had been completely burned. As we drove North, the forest turned green again and we stopped to see the valley where the forest was spared by the fires.

After turning around on Trail Ridge Road, the weather took a turn for the worse.

We hit a small hail storm followed by some rain along the highest portions of the road. We stopped to check out the herd of elk at Forest Canyon Overlook. Looking across the road to the North, the storm that had passed over us was continuing to move East. It was cool to see the lightning and storm clouds looking straight across.

Day 2

On our second full day we elected to hike all day. We started at Bear Lake and made a circuit around the lakes to the South and West of Bear Lake. We also split off of the circuit to see Sky Pond right at the Continental Divide. At Sky Pond there is a small glacier called Taylor Glacier.

Pictures from our full day of hiking. It was apparently only 10 miles with about 3,300 feet of elevation gain. It felt longer than that. Hiking to Sky Pond was more challenging than expected. Before getting to Lake of Glass, you have to climb up along the side of a waterfall roughly 30 feet high.

The trail leading to the waterfall is not for everyone. The grade is very steep and some other hikers were not able to scale the waterfall. After climbing the waterfall, it is fairly flat to reach Sky Pond about 1/3 mile farther.

There is a lot to see on this hike. We took our time and we spent all day on the trail. When we hit the trail junction for Sky Pond, I was ready to head back to Bear Lake. We pushed on and it was definitely worth it.

The trail for Sky Pond was busy, but not crowded. Most of the other hikers did not scale the waterfall and the trail was sparsely traversed above the waterfall and along the Lake of Glass. Therefore when we arrived at Sky Pond we had it all to ourselves for a few moments. Serenity!

Day 3

On our last full day in the park, we went for a short hike out and back to Bierstadt Lake. Lots of switchbacks! Along the way we could see Taylor Glacier from the day before at Sky Pond in the distance.

After returning to the parking lot, we walked across the street to Storm Pass Trailhead and walked the relatively flat trail to Sprague Lake.