On our trip to Colorado, we knew we wanted to spend a day hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. While we were staying in Boulder, the weather wasn’t the best, but we decided to drive up to the park anyway. We were worried because it was snowy in Boulder, but it only made the mountains more magical!
Rocky Mountain National Park is located in northern Colorado, just an hour drive from Boulder, and about an hour and a half from Denver. The Continental Divide runs right through the center of the park. There are two main roads that showcase the beautiful scenery that the park is popular for – the Trail Ridge Road and the Old Fall River Road. Trail Ridge Road is considered the highest paved through road in the country. If you didn’t stop and just drove straight through the park, it could take about 2 hours for the whole drive! The full drive through the park on these roads was partially closed when we were there because of the bad weather, but we still had a lot of great options and views in the areas of the park that we did visit. We entered the park from the town of Estes Park and were treated to amazing scenery the whole day.
We purchased the America the Beautiful pass at the entrance to the park. The one day entrance fee for Rocky Mountain National Park is $25, but an America the Beautiful Pass is $80. The pass covers the entrance fees to all National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands and is good for one year. Considering the parks we planned on going to during our trip, the pass ended up paying for itself really quickly! It was definitely a good investment and it’s great because it’s something we can even use at home on Long Island and throughout New York.
Rocky Mountain National Park is split up into five regions. Region one is huge and is on the west side of the Continental Divide and is known for big meadows and moose sightings. Region two is considered the alpine region with spectacular vistas. Region three is known for being a wilderness escape. It is in the northern part of the park and has a lot of trail options. Region four is considered the heart of the park with the easiest road access, most popular trails, and lots of lakes sprinkled throughout. Region five has lots of waterfalls and is considered the backcountry. We spent most of our time in region four!
We picked a hike that seemed feasible since we knew all the trails would be icy and we did not have spikes on our shoes. We picked the Emerald Lake trail that starts at the Bear Lake Trailhead. The trail passes a few different lakes on the way to Emerald Lake, so we figured we would hike until we felt content and then come back, based on our time! We had a four hour drive ahead of us to our next destination, so we kept that in mind.
The best part about visiting the park in the middle of November was that the parking lot was almost empty, and there weren’t too many people on the trails! Apparently in the warmer months, the parking lot fills up really fast and there is a shuttle that can take you to the trailhead as well. Once we hopped out of the car, we walked just two minutes from the trailhead to Bear Lake. Since it was so close to the parking lot, a lot of people had just stopped there to take those views in. There is a popular hike that loops around Bear Lake, but it seemed like most of the people stopped there to view the lake and then headed back to the car. It was so windy and icy by that lake, so we carefully headed up on our journey.
We started our hike, slipping and sliding all over as we hiked up – but it wasn’t a problem for us because we took it easy, stopping every so often to take in the beautiful scenery. Everything outside of the trail in the mountains felt so untouched – it was such a great feeling looking out at the snow-covered trees in the mountains. In less than 40 minutes, we reached Nymph Lake. It definitely would have been a lot quicker to get there if the ground wasn’t so icy, but we didn’t mind! The lake was frozen over completely and covered with snow so it was a beautiful sight! Albert braved walking on the frozen lake, and then convinced me to come out as well. We enjoyed the views and watched as people snow-shoed across the whole lake. We headed back to the trail to head onto Dream Lake!
While we were on the trail, we saw a person sitting on a giant rock, tucked a little off to the side, overlooking the mountains. We decided to stop and take a look at the beautiful scenery as well. The view was breathtaking!!! We took a few photos and had a nice conversation with the guy sitting there, chatting about hiking and adventures. After that, we kept going up the trail. Every step that we took offered us amazing views!
About 15 minutes later, we reached Dream Lake! There was packed down snow throughout the trails heading there, but once we got to the lake it felt like there was so much snow everywhere! We saw just a few other people there, but not too many. We adventured around the lake – climbing on huge boulders, and just walking around, trying to get all different views. The lake was completely frozen and we walked on it a little too. It was so beautiful being surrounded by the snowy mountains. We spent a decent amount of time there, just taking the views in. We felt like we got our hiking and mountain fix, and it was getting late, so we headed back to the trailhead. We took the same trail back down, still slipping and sliding as we went.
The hike down wasn’t too bad, but we made sure we were really careful on the trails! Once we were back to the car, we hopped in, drove around Rocky Mountain National Park a little more, and then headed on our way to our next adventure!
