Let’s Recap! So far, we have broken down every park and attraction visited on this one trip. From the planning stages, to all Five National Parks visited in Utah. You can find the route and overall costs in the first blog of this series along with planning tips. After that, we broke down all of the parks and gave our best advice. Overall, this was a 9 day trip where we visited 8 National Parks and several popular landmarks. This trip occurred from May 25, 2018 – June 3, 2018. We have covered 7 of those parks and are happy to finally be writing, once again, about Rocky Mountain National.
Some back story. We were not originally going to visit this park, and were going to just stay a night in Denver. That was until one of our friends on the trip told us he had never been there! So now we had to go.
Rocky Mountain National Park- Round….I’ve lost count
Since we had not planned to make this stop we did not have camping planned. Luckily, we had a friend in the area that was happy to do some research and snag us a spot. We ended up camping in Estes Park at Mary’s Lake. They have lots of camp sites for both tents and large RVs. It was a beautiful facility and well priced. With it being the middle of the busy season we were happy to get any spot and had no hopes of booking within the park. But Estes Park is a beautiful place and well worth the visit. Campsites were fairly secluded and bathrooms with showers were nearby!
The Usual Hikes
Showing people the beauty of this park is our favorite! We decided to stick with the hikes we knew were sure to wow. Classics such as Dream and Emerald Lake from Bear Lake Trailhead and Beaver Meadows. Our friend really wanted to see some elk so we knew Beaver Meadows in the evening would have to be on the list.
Elk can be found throughout the park all day, but for a real show you have to head to Beaver Meadows just inside the park entrance. There you will find dozens of elk gathered to feed. We usually go around 5-6 pm. Morning if also a great time!
We noticed as we were leaving, everyone was gathered taking photos of one elk in particular. Thinking it was just because he was closer and in the water we did not bother to stop but snapped a few photos from the car. When we got back home and we were looking through photos, we zoomed in and realized it was actually a moose!
Knowing this now, we probably would have stopped and appreciated this more rare summer site.
We later went on to see the lakes: Nymph, Dream, and Emerald! Via the Bear Lake Trailhead.
After our hikes, we spent a very cold and windy night at the campground to be woken up by elk sniffing the tent. We then had a more civilized night in Denver before heading home.
We hope you have enjoyed this mini series and will join us for more park adventures. Coming up we have Smoky Mountains, Rocky’s in the Fall (rut season!), and we will get into some of the updates we are making to our camping set up!
Details:
- Do not go to Rocky Mountain without a camping plan in summer. Make those reservations early!
- Wanna see lots of elk? Early evening and morning is a great time pretty much anywhere, but we love Beaver Meadows. You may even see a moose.
- This is one park we suggest making a plan for hiking. We have gone enough that we know our favorites but there are soooo many to choose from. You can pick from lakes, more mountain views, waterfalls, and even some based on wildlife. This is another great reason to visit the visitor’s center and talk with rangers.
- This park is beautiful at night! You can easily stay in Denver and make this a day trip but the crisp mountain air leads to a lot of cloudless nights of beautiful stars. Plan to be here for at least a bit at night.
Specifics:
- Places Visited
- Rocky Mountain National Park
- Camp
- Estes Park at Mary’s Lake
- Hikes
- Bear Lake Trailhead (to Emerald Lake)
- Distance 4.1 miles | Type: Out and Back | Difficulty: Moderate
- Bear Lake Trailhead (to Emerald Lake)
OFF THE CLOCK CAMPERS 