Rocky Mountain National Park - July 15, 2016

Rocky Mountain National Park - Estes Park, Colorado

Friday July 15th


My family and I took the road trip of a lifetime, a 10 day cross country adventure to Colorado!  After spending 16 hours overnight in the car, we arrived in Estes Park early Friday.  We spent the morning and early afternoon shopping and having lunch in downtown Estes Park.  We really loved the rock shop!  After spending time downtown, we headed into nearby Rocky Mountain National Park.  Since my brother and sister are both in 4th grade, we received a free pass because of the centennial celebration of the national parks!  We made our way to Moraine Park Campground and set up camp.  Our site was towards the back of the campground, but man, what a view!

View of our campsite!

After camp was set up, we headed up in the mountains to the Bear Lake Trailhead.  We decided to take a short hike, less than 1 mile (about 0.8 miles) on the Bear Lake Loop Trail.  This was a pretty simple hike, but one thing I wasn't prepared for was the elevation.  The trail started a a whopping 9475 feet above sea level!  We enjoyed the awesome views of the surrounding mountains and the beautifully clear water of Bear Lake.

Ranger Station at the Bear Lake Trailhead

Bear Lake Trail Map

Cheesin' with CJ, Alorah, and Mom

What a view!

View of Hallett Peak

 After our hike, as mom was getting the campfire ready, the rest of us hiked down to the "park" down the hill from our campsite.  A "park" is a mainly flat valley in the mountains that is mostly barren of trees.  There was a nice stream flowing through the park.  We learned at the Ranger program that we attended this evening that the fences were put up to keep wild elk from entering parts of the park, hopefully allowing the area to grow back so that beavers may come back and inhabit the area.  At the end of the day, we were all extremely tired and ready for bed!

Crossing the streams!

Fence to keep out the wild elk.

For more information about the things we did, please visit:
Rocky Mountain National Park: https://www.nps.gov/romo/
Estes Park, Colorado:www.visitestespark.com/
Moraine Park Campground: http://www.recreation.gov/camping/moraine-park-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70943
Bear Lake Trail: http://www.rockymountainhikingtrails.com/bear-lake-nature-trail.htm

To parents, from parents:

The trail at Bear Lake is very family friendly.  As you can see in the picture of the trail above, the trail is a short loop around Bear Lake.  Most of the trail is considered wheelchair accessible, so if you are looking to do an easy trail to get used to the elevation, this is a good starting hike.  There is a ranger station at the trailhead as well as several vault toilets.  The parking area at Bear Lake fills rather quickly.  There is a shuttle from the "Park and Ride" area that is half-way to Bear Lake that is convenient if the Bear Lake parking lot is full.  If you don't want to drive to the Park and Ride, you can get there by other shuttle buses, one from the Beaver Creek Visitors Center just outside of Estes Park, or another from the Moraine Park Campground area.