It was a bright sunny Saturday morning that me and my cousin Archana, started out to the Rocky mountain national park. Being officially the fan of US National Parks and this being my fifth national Park that I have visited during my stay here, I was excited. The last two weeks after my visit to the mind boggling Yellowstone National park were pretty hectic and so this was a break I badly needed.
Our gateway to the park was a small town Estes Park. After gathering out Veggie foods here,we reached the park around 11 AM and our first stop was the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center just outside the park. As with every National Park in US, this visitor center also had a 23 minute national park video that introduces people to the Park and its history. These are awesomely shot videos that never fail to impress me. This time was no different. After stocking up ourselves with map, guides,food and water, we moved to start our day at the National Park.Our plan was to take the Trail ridge Road for the first day and hike a peak the second day. And that was exactly what we did.
Trail Ridge Road ,a 48-mile marvel road that runs along the West side of the park, offers the best way to explore the park . Built in 1932, It's the highest continuous paved road in the United States, reaching an elevation of 12,183 feet. It follows a path that the Ute and other Native American peoples used for thousands of years.
Our first stop on the Trail Ridge,was Deer ridge junction, this place gives you the first true view of the Longs Peak a majestic peak that basically can be seen from any part of the park. This is also the trail head for Deer Mountain summit trail. After a brief stop over here we continued on to a series of overlooks, that included Rainbow Curve, Many Parks Curve and the Forest Canyon Overlook. Each of these view points have designated ample parking space on road side which makes visiting these a comfortable experience. Out of the above three overlooks, Forest Canyon Overlook, which is accessible with a 5 minute walk from the parking lot, is a sight to behold. A view from here, gives you how majestic these mountain can be. But make sure you do have warm clothing, because, Forest Canyon overlook is the first overlook in the road that is above alpine tree line. That means this place is so fricking cold that even trees dare not to grow here.
After a mesmerizing view of the mountains, we continued on the Trail Ridge Road now at at an elevation of 11,758 feet to the rock cut parking area, which is the trailhead to the Tundra World natural Trail. This trail walks you through alpine Tundra. These are elevations too cold for the the trees to grow. What grows are wild flowers/plants adapted to the climatic conditions and various animals that prey on thEM. The temperatures in these Tundra reaches sub zero almost every night of the year. The trail is dotted with boards that give good info on the Tundra vegetation and wildlife.
With most part of the trail still covered in snow we came back half way through and continued our trip. Just few foot back into the road, we spotted our first wildlife in the park, the Elks. After a brief stop over for photographs, we proceeded on to our next stop, Lava Cliffs.
Lava cliffs, the tallest point on the Trail Ridge Road is at an elevation of 12,178 feet. We then went on to the Alpine Ridge Visitor Center for a small chai break. At 11,799 feet, this is the highest visitor center in USA. After this small break, stopping briefly at Meadows Curve overlook ,we then reached the Milner Pass. Milner Pass is where, the Trail Ridge Mountain crosses, the continental divide. All the water on the east side of this point will flow down to the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean and all the water on the west side will flow down the Colorado to the Pacific Ocean. We then moved on to Fairview curve another good overlook point and from there to Grand Lake. Grand lake is one of the small towns the borders Rocky mountain national Park. This is where the Trail Ridge Road exits Rocky mountain National park and continues as US-36. We went to the East Point trail head , where we started our second hike for the day to the Adams falls. It was a brief 0.3 mile trek to the fall head. We were able to spot a fox trying to hunt something small like a mouse at the trail head. After viewing the falls we headed back to the trail head. We did a small stopover at the Grand lake and started back to Estes Park where we had our accomodation for night. The way back was equally beautiful, this time not stopping any where and was a continous drive for almost an hour. With sun set just around the corner and the mountains were lit up with hues of colors and it was hard to keep my eyes on the road as I was driving as one small mistake would send me and our car to a pretty bad fall.
Taking a detour on the midway, we drove to some more attractions of the park like the Horseshoe park and Alluvial Fan falls. On our way back, a herd of elks crossed the road right in front of us. That moment being so close to the wildlife was indeed breath taking. We then reached Estes Park at around 9 PM, only to see a black bear with two kid bears just near the town borders. It was a great sight to see.
After having dinner at Nepal Cafe, we headed to Saddle and surrey motel for the night.
The next day was our trek day. We wanted to do a moderate summit hike. So after many googlings we decided upon Deer Mountain Summit Trail. We started first to have a quick view of spar and Bear Lake before heading to Deer Mountain Trailhead. Most part of bear lake was frozen and it was a pleasant sight early morning . With a sunny day forecast, we began our ascent to Deer Mountain Summit at around 10:30 AM. Having packed our food and with bottles of water and Galtorade, our bags were heavy . After an hour and a half, we finally reached the summit at an elevation of . The trek was tiring towards the end where there was quite an elevation to cover in a small distance. Neverthless the view from the top, was worth the effort. The view of Longs peak and other prominent peaks of the park was literally mind blowing. We sat there for sometime , with quite a number of squirrels, running near us . We then started our descent. After stopping briefly midway for our packed lunch, we descended and reached the trailhead. The descent almost took the same time as our ascent.
After a brief stop back at the Beaver Meadows Trail head, we started back to Boulder. On our way back we stopped at the base of Longs Peak,hoping one day we will succeed in hiking that too. At 14,259 feet, Longs Peak was one of the prominent 14000s peak in Colorado that has a glacier. After dropping Archana, I headed of to Denver, from there on to Boise with wonderful memories of the Rockies.
Quick Tips:
Our gateway to the park was a small town Estes Park. After gathering out Veggie foods here,we reached the park around 11 AM and our first stop was the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center just outside the park. As with every National Park in US, this visitor center also had a 23 minute national park video that introduces people to the Park and its history. These are awesomely shot videos that never fail to impress me. This time was no different. After stocking up ourselves with map, guides,food and water, we moved to start our day at the National Park.Our plan was to take the Trail ridge Road for the first day and hike a peak the second day. And that was exactly what we did.
Trail Ridge Road ,a 48-mile marvel road that runs along the West side of the park, offers the best way to explore the park . Built in 1932, It's the highest continuous paved road in the United States, reaching an elevation of 12,183 feet. It follows a path that the Ute and other Native American peoples used for thousands of years.
Our first stop on the Trail Ridge,was Deer ridge junction, this place gives you the first true view of the Longs Peak a majestic peak that basically can be seen from any part of the park. This is also the trail head for Deer Mountain summit trail. After a brief stop over here we continued on to a series of overlooks, that included Rainbow Curve, Many Parks Curve and the Forest Canyon Overlook. Each of these view points have designated ample parking space on road side which makes visiting these a comfortable experience. Out of the above three overlooks, Forest Canyon Overlook, which is accessible with a 5 minute walk from the parking lot, is a sight to behold. A view from here, gives you how majestic these mountain can be. But make sure you do have warm clothing, because, Forest Canyon overlook is the first overlook in the road that is above alpine tree line. That means this place is so fricking cold that even trees dare not to grow here.
After a mesmerizing view of the mountains, we continued on the Trail Ridge Road now at at an elevation of 11,758 feet to the rock cut parking area, which is the trailhead to the Tundra World natural Trail. This trail walks you through alpine Tundra. These are elevations too cold for the the trees to grow. What grows are wild flowers/plants adapted to the climatic conditions and various animals that prey on thEM. The temperatures in these Tundra reaches sub zero almost every night of the year. The trail is dotted with boards that give good info on the Tundra vegetation and wildlife.
Lava cliffs, the tallest point on the Trail Ridge Road is at an elevation of 12,178 feet. We then went on to the Alpine Ridge Visitor Center for a small chai break. At 11,799 feet, this is the highest visitor center in USA. After this small break, stopping briefly at Meadows Curve overlook ,we then reached the Milner Pass. Milner Pass is where, the Trail Ridge Mountain crosses, the continental divide. All the water on the east side of this point will flow down to the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean and all the water on the west side will flow down the Colorado to the Pacific Ocean. We then moved on to Fairview curve another good overlook point and from there to Grand Lake. Grand lake is one of the small towns the borders Rocky mountain national Park. This is where the Trail Ridge Road exits Rocky mountain National park and continues as US-36. We went to the East Point trail head , where we started our second hike for the day to the Adams falls. It was a brief 0.3 mile trek to the fall head. We were able to spot a fox trying to hunt something small like a mouse at the trail head. After viewing the falls we headed back to the trail head. We did a small stopover at the Grand lake and started back to Estes Park where we had our accomodation for night. The way back was equally beautiful, this time not stopping any where and was a continous drive for almost an hour. With sun set just around the corner and the mountains were lit up with hues of colors and it was hard to keep my eyes on the road as I was driving as one small mistake would send me and our car to a pretty bad fall.
Taking a detour on the midway, we drove to some more attractions of the park like the Horseshoe park and Alluvial Fan falls. On our way back, a herd of elks crossed the road right in front of us. That moment being so close to the wildlife was indeed breath taking. We then reached Estes Park at around 9 PM, only to see a black bear with two kid bears just near the town borders. It was a great sight to see.After having dinner at Nepal Cafe, we headed to Saddle and surrey motel for the night.
After a brief stop back at the Beaver Meadows Trail head, we started back to Boulder. On our way back we stopped at the base of Longs Peak,hoping one day we will succeed in hiking that too. At 14,259 feet, Longs Peak was one of the prominent 14000s peak in Colorado that has a glacier. After dropping Archana, I headed of to Denver, from there on to Boise with wonderful memories of the Rockies.Quick Tips:
- Rocky Mountain National Park is a hiker's paradise there are more that 350 miles of trails in the park.
- Camping is the best way to stay in Rockies, there are a numerous campsites inside and outside the parks.
- Talk to the rangers for the weather conditions before venturing into any trail.
- The nearest two towns are Estes Park and Grand Lake. Though not big it has most of the famous food chains and Nepal Cafe for Indian Food.
- It is highly recommend to pack your foods before entering the park as unlike other national parks,not much food stops are there inside the park.
- Carry PLENTY of water , sub alpine elevations could be very hot and dry.
- All the visitor centers have drinking water supply and Free Wifi.
1 comment:
Nice round up of the trip... I will add that June is somewhat the best time to go, no as crowded as the summer and plenty of snow to keep you excited!
Also, take lot of sunscreen!
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