Rocky Mountain National Park Photologue
Last May, for our anniversary trip, Tom and I took a (much too) quick trip out to Colorado to visit family. We stayed in Longmont for the beginning of the trip, and then spent the final few days in Rocky Mountain National Park. We didn’t get to spend nearly enough time out there and vowed to go back soon. Realizing that I had never shared the photos from this trip, I decided to spend a little time creating a photologue of our favorite parts. Being such a short trip, I didn’t spend much time writing as we were trying to pack in as much as we could.
Once we landed in Denver, we headed straight for Red Rocks Park for a short hike to stretch our legs.
We finished our first day catching up with family at a BBQ and bonfire.
The following day, we explored Boulder before embarking on a nice hike along Antelope Trail outside of Lyons, CO.
At the advice of our local family, we headed to St. Vrain Mountain to check out the camping in that area. We were pleasantly surprised with how wonderful the trails and dispersed camping was. We drove to Allenspark, CO along route 7 then took FR 107 to Ski Road / FR 1161 to the trailhead. We hiked for a short time, then returned to a roadside site along FR 107. Our site was nestled on the top of an overlook above the roaring river below.
I would be hard pressed to find a better view to wake up to in the morning than a beautiful pine forest and budding wild flowers.
We had booked camping at Moraine Campground in order to be centrally located in Rocky Mountain National Park. The weather continuously switched from cold and drizzly to windy and sleeting. Such is the typical forecast in late May.
Our drive up Trail Ridge Road was beautiful despite the weather. We stopped at numerous overlooks along the way, enchanted by the snowy peaks and deep blue skies.
Herds of elk surrounded the roads on our drive back to our site.
We settled in for the night before sunset and relaxed as the day drew to an end.
On our final full day in RMNP, we started our day out at Bear Lake. The clouds lingered along the mountains longer than we expected which gave us a late start to the hike.
My favorite hike of the trip was the haul from Nymph Lake to Emerald Lake. The trail began as a packed dirt path which lead to ankle deep snow as we hiked higher in elevation. As the day wore on, the snow began to melt and made traveling even more difficult for those of us not acclimated to the demands of hiking at elevations above 10,000ft. The best part was sliding down the trail in the slippery, wet snow. It provided our tired bodies with some much needed laughter!
We finished our day with a drive up Trail Ridge Road to the west side of the park. This was a relaxing and satisfying way to see many more beautiful views.
