Get your hiking boots ready! Rocky Mountain National Park will wear you out with beautiful, high altitude treks to alpine lakes and towering summits. Add in that this park lies a stone’s throw from Denver, and it’s no wonder it attracts the third-most visitors of any national park each year.
We’ve now visited Rocky Mountain National Park on two separate occasions: once in July and once in October. While very different experiences, the mountains and lakes offered incredible views each time. If we had to pick our favorite visit, we would say October because of the added snowfall and amazing visuals when the lakes are frozen, but make sure you pack appropriately if you intend to come during colder weather.
Our two visits to the park contained a mix of hikes and scenic drives. Below are our favorite experiences that we would recommend for first-time visitors!
Sky Pond via Glacier Gorge Trail
This challenging hike offers some incredibly rewarding views. Overall, you’ll hike 9.5 miles and gain nearly 2,000 feet of elevation on the out-and-back journey to Sky Pond from the Glacier Gorge Junction Trailhead. Along the way, you’ll get to pass The Loch, which is an awe-inspiring sub-alpine lake in itself.
Depending on when you plan to do this hike, you may need to bring different gear. For example, we highly recommend bringing crampons if you visit outside of the summer months. The end of the trail requires you to climb up a rocky waterfall to reach Sky Pond, and this waterfall can freeze into essentially a solid sheet of ice. Unfortunately, we ran into this issue when we did the hike in October. Our hiking shoes just didn’t have the traction to climb that steep and slippery a surface, so we unfortunately had to turn around right before reaching the summit. Don’t make this same mistake.
Still, even though we didn’t get to see Sky Pond itself, we can’t recommend this trail highly enough. The views are absolutely incredible as you approach the waterfall, and we loved visiting The Loch and walking out on the frozen lake.
If you aren’t used to higher altitudes, we also recommend taking a day or two in the Denver area to acclimate before attempting this trek. The highest point of this trail is about 11,000 feet above sea level, and you’ll likely feel that altitude even on the easier portions of the hike. This rings true for pretty much any physical activity in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Emerald Lake Trail
If you’re looking for a shorter but still beautiful hike in the park, Emerald Lake is the trail for you. For just 4.1 miles of hiking and 744 feet of elevation gain, you’ll get to pass multiple alpine lakes surrounded by the towering Rocky Mountains.
To get to this hike, you’ll park at the Bear Lake Trailhead. Once you start down the path, you’ll reach a fork in the road. To the immediate right is Bear Lake, which is a nice lake with a relaxing path around the circumference. To the left is the trail that will take you to Emerald Lake.
The heavily-trafficked trail to Emerald Lake visits Nymph Lake and Dream Lake before eventually reaching the trail’s namesake. It’s great having these stops along the way because it keeps the trail really interesting and offers an appetizer of sorts before the main course. Honestly, though, we thought Dream Lake was just as beautiful as Emerald Lake.
If you can stomach the cold, you even have the option of swimming in Emerald Lake! We didn’t plan for that possibility, but there were quite a few people taking a dip when we visited. Instead, we climbed up some of the rocks adjacent to the lake to get a full picture-perfect view.
Trail Ridge Road
This scenic drive reaches an altitude of over 12,000 feet and offers some incredible views. Depending on your itinerary, Trail Ridge Road also serves as a great way to pass through the park from one entrance to the other.
There are number of great viewpoints along this scenic drive, and you will likely need at least a couple hours to fully appreciate them while also giving yourself plenty of time to traverse the 48-mile road. Since we were limited on time, we decided to focus on the part of the road from the park’s eastern entrance to the Alpine Visitor Center.
It is well worth stopping by the Alpine Visitor Center, as it sits at one of the highest points along the road. Rarely do you get the opportunity to experience that kind of thin air, so don’t pass it by. While there you can also do the short (0.7 miles) Alpine Ridge Trail that leaves from the visitor center’s parking lot and offers some panoramic views of the surrounding ridgeline. Even though this hike is short, though, it is steep, and you will be feeling it because of the altitude.
As far as viewpoints are concerned, you really can’t go wrong along this road. We stopped at every marked pullout along the way, but our favorites had to be Forest Canyon Overlook, Many Parks Curve, and Gore Range Overlook. If you’re lucky, you may even see some wildlife hiding just below the observation decks!
Before you head out on this scenic drive, note that portions of the road are closed seasonally. Consult the National Park Service website to see where your journey can take you.
Other Tips & Tricks
- Where to Stay and Eat: While Estes Park sits adjacent to the park’s entrance and has a lively tourism infrastructure, we prefer to stay in Boulder or Denver. We love both of those cities and can’t get enough of the dining options there. For more information on our favorite restaurants and hotels in these areas, you can refer to our post on Denver (coming soon!).
- Getting to (and into) the Park: The Fall River entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park sits just over an hour from Boulder and only 17 minutes from Estes Park. If you plan to visit during COVID-19 restrictions, refer to the National Park Service website to see if reservations are required. When we visited in July 2020, we had to reserve a specific entrance time as part of the park’s efforts to manage crowd control. (Note that if you already have an annual national park pass, the reservation processing fee is only a few dollars. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay the park’s standard entrance fee on top of the processing fee.) Once you’re in the park, you have the option of taking a shuttle down Bear Lake Road to the Glacier Gorge Junction Traihead and the Bear Lake Trailhead. We opted to drive ourselves to respect social distancing guidelines, but if you do this you’ll have to get a bit lucky finding a parking spot. Once people enter the park at their specified times (or before 6:00am when there is nobody monitoring the entrance station), they aren’t forced to leave after a certain duration, so the park tends to get more crowded as the day goes on.
- Visitor Centers: Honestly, we were really impressed with the swag sold at the park’s visitor centers. We already mentioned the Alpine Visitor Center, but it is worth checking out the Fall River Visitor Center as well. The Alpine Visitor Center tends to sell out of warm clothes because it is so much colder at that altitude, so you’ll have a better selection of products available if you shop at the Fall River location.
- What to Bring and Wear: Seasonality is key here, so make sure you check the weather forecasts provided by the National Park Service. We went from wearing t-shirts in July to full winter coats and snow attire in October. On top of the clothes you have on, consider bringing crampons if you plan on hiking in the winter, and always pack plenty of water.
Happy traveling!
Kitrina & Jordan
