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!
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.
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.
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.
Happy traveling!
Kitrina & Jordan
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