Rocky Mountain National Park

Our goal today was the Rocky Mountain National Park. It is huge  - 415 square miles! We just had time for a small section.

The Road to Estes Park

Estes Park is the closest town to the park. We headed straight north and once again crossed up and down over the mountains to get there...

The Flatirons fizzle to smaller hills

Shuttle Bus and the Alberta Falls Hike

We stopped at the Rocky Mountain National Park Visitor Center and were informed all the parking lots towards Bear Lake were full—we’d have to take a shuttle bus. After entering the park and heading towards Bear Lake, we stopped at the designated Park and Ride and picked up the shuttle bus.

On the way to the Park and Ride we noticed along the road all these wood piles. Probably due to Pine beetle infestation, all the deadwood is piled like this to minimize forest fires.

We jumped off at the Bear Lake stop and hiked to Alberta Falls.

To see the falls, the trail took us down and then up. Its an easy trail but at a high altitude it took a bit of adjustment to get use to a reasonable pace..

• Waterfall elevation: 9,400 feet
• Trailhead elevation: 9,180 feet
• Net elevation gain: 220 feet

Its a 30 ft falls and the water flow was very powerful due to the steep incline of the stream bed. It was nice to wander around the rocks a bit.

Bear Lake

Once we returned to the drop off area - Cris was tired and refused to do anymore hiking :-( I popped up to the lake just a short distance away and saw a couple of hungry critters...

 The lake was beautiful - especially with the tall peaks in the background..

The Climb to Rainbow Curve

We decided to go the the famous Trail Ridge Road and the drive up was incredible. I confess I was cringing a bit even through Greg was driving very slow! It is more than three thousand feet above Estes Park!

• Estes Park Elevation 7,522 ft
• Rainbow Curve Elevation: 10,875 feet.

Rainbow Curve

Once we got to the Rainbow Curve Overlook there was an approaching thunderstorm so we decided to head back down rather than continue on to Alpine...

The view was incredible -- we were so high up! This is a panorama that goes from left to right...

 

A Taste of Estes Park

Our descent - Once we completed all the switchbacks, we took a different way back and drove through the “bighorn sheep area” but alas no bighorn sheep were seen :-( But sure enough, as we approached Estes Park we got pummeled with a huge rainstorm. We circled around town for a few times till the rain stopped. Once parked, it subsided and eventually got sunny once more.

I remembered Orange Julius from my childhood days but somehow it wasn’t very special this time. At least the River Park was kinda nice.

It was raging after the massive storm

Heading Back to Boulder

Because of the thunderstorm it was even clearer then the morning drive in and the scenery was great!

On the way back through Lyons, there were a few railroad remnants (a passenger car and a couple of cabooses) which I will document on my railroad related blog (link to come).

We have to come back next year to do more exploring - Rocky Mountain National Park is incredible!

Further Info

• Trail Ridge Road provides spectacular view of the majestic scenery of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is the highest continuous motorway in the United States, with more than eight miles lying above 11,000' and a maximum elevation of 1 12,183'. 
• Alberta Falls
• Bear Lake