Rocky Mountain National Park - Part 1

 

On Tuesday a couple weeks ago we drove out to Colorado to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. We were pretty blown away by how incredibly beautiful it was! We stayed at a little cabin of sorts with a kitchenette, sofa bed, and small room where Nate and I slept. When we decided to go this summer, we thought at first that we would camp, but that was before we looked at the general temperatures for June in the area. After learning that temperatures at night were in the 30s and 40s, we opted to not spend our nights there freezing in a tent. Austin loved that there was a playground area by our cabin there full of various toy trucks, boats, and sand castle molds to play with in the sand.

We didn't go into the park Tuesday, but we did go first thing Wednesday morning. We decided to spend the day in the Bear Lake area, so we parked and rode a shuttle to Bear Lake. We hiked the short loop around Bear Lake and then continued along the trail to Emerald Lake.

Here we are at Bear Lake

Unfortunately, after reaching the first lake along this trail, Nymph Lake, my camera battery died. Normally, that is not a problem, since I always keep a backup charged and ready to go. However, I was surprised and dismayed to find my backup battery was dead too! I can't even remember the last time before then that I forgot to charge my backup after it died. I was not keen on the idea of hiking to the picturesque Emerald Lake without my camera, so we ended up deciding to go back to the cabin and eat an early lunch while a camera battery charged.

After lunch, we decided to change our plans for the rest of the day. We first stopped at a viewpoint for West Horseshoe Park.

Then we drove to Old Fall River Road to see Chasm Falls. This dirt road is not open to cars until July, but we had read many places that visitors could still hike a short distance up the road before then to see the falls. We were almost to Chasm Falls when we came to a sign on the road forbidding bicycles and hikers from traveling any further. We were crazy frustrated at having spent the time and energy to hike up there only to reach a sign saying we couldn't go any further just before the falls. We considered ignoring the sign and continuing since we were already so close, but then a ranger drove up the road. We asked him about it, and he said they were readying the road for vehicle traffic and couldn't have others on it at the same time. We asked why the sign was a half mile up the dirt road and not at the beginning, but he didn't know and just explained that was something he was going to ask about getting fixed himself. We were feeling pretty discouraged with our unsuccessful ventures for the day at that point. At least we were able to warn another large group of hikers at the beginning of the road that they wouldn't be able to reach the falls either, thus saving them from wasting their time as we had.

From there we headed back to Trail Ridge Road and drove all the way around it to the west side of the park, stopping at scenic viewpoints and the visitor's center along the way. Trail Ridge Road is the highest road in the continental United States, and it climbs high up into the harsh and windy alpine tundra sections of Rocky Mountain National Park. Apparently the winds get up to 150 mph up there, and are frequently 100 mph. The alpine tundra was full of blooming wildflowers, and the views were amazing! It was also very windy and cold though, so we were grateful we had brought our coats along.

Alpine Phlox

We stopped by the Ute Trail briefly - a portion of an old trail used by Arapaho and Ute Indians on their way between winter and summer hunting grounds. I would have loved to have hiked the whole thing, but that probably wouldn't have worked well with Austin in any case.

 

 

We also went to the Alpine Visitor's Center. I found the displays with information about different plants and animals there fascinating. I was particularly intrigued by a flower called Sky Pilot, that smells differently based on its location/elevation. At higher elevations it has a sweet scent to attract bees, but it can't complete for bees with other flowers at lower elevations so it emits a skunk-like smell instead to attract flies to pollinate.

We went up against the stiff winds and hiked up the short Alpine Ridge Trail at the visitor's center.

Alpine Avens - a favorite
food of pikas

 

We continued around to the west side of the park, where we drove by a meadow in which a good number of large elk were grazing.

We drove all the way to the east side of Grande Lake so we could make a quick hike to Adams Falls.

We drove back to the east side of the park once again along Trail Ridge Road, enjoying the views one last time before calling it a day and returning to our cabin for dinner. In total we hiked roughly 4.3 miles for the day.