Rocky Mountain National Park (1): an overview
The best time to visit the Rockies is June and July. Some of the awesome summits are only hikable in July. For example, the one I am interested but has not yet opened this time is called Longs Peak. The last section of Longs Peak is a giant piece of slate standing 75-90 degree. People had died from it. I probably would just stop at keyhole ;). The trail looks like this:
Time permit: The Rockies is one of the earliest national parks that implement time-permit systems. The permits are almost impossible to bid online when closing to the date of your visit (don’t waste your time to try even). So Tip No. 1, booking the permits and campsite (in the park) early, 3-6 months early. Well, no worries, if you do not have a permit, you still can visit and hike the national park happily. You can enter the park before 9am or after 3pm. For a certain area, e.g., bear lake trail systems, you cannot visit before 5pm without permits. But this area is totally not my cup of tea. There are buses shipping tourists to the trail heads due to the overflowed parking lots. Maybe it is a great area to take kids and parents. The scenery is beautiful and the water is crystal clear. I see giant fishes!! Some trails are even wheel chair accessible.
Camping: One of the nearest towns to the national park is called Aspen. There are quite a few campsites there. It is about 5 minutes drive to the gate of the national park. The one I stayed is called “Estes Park Campground at Mary’s Lake”. I have no complaints about this place. I booked a little over a month before the visit. You can bring food and lock them in the bear safe lock at night. I see a lot of birds, deer, elks but no bears here. There are quite a few good trails near the campsite that do not even need national park tickets. Some people live in the town near Grand Lakes, which is the other side of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Overview of the tails: the nature is purifying. One of my favorite trails is called Gem Lake. When going up, it had a perfect sunshine, but coming down with running under pouring rains and big hails. Cool! At the bottom, though, my clothes are kind of dry already. The Rocky mountains has crazy weather like this.
The coolest place in the park is Alpine tundra. It covered with short aged plants with some strange rocks. The wind can dump 30 feet of snow somewhere here in winter.
Of course, don’t forget to hike the waterfalls @ Alluvial Fan Trail. You can go up for a quite while following the waterfall.
Tracing the original of Colorado river, 14 miles from the trail head to the origin. See this is the river that roars through the grand canyon. The water is so cold! I will come to talk more about those trails later.
Wildlife: One of the excitement in the park is to spot wildlife. I have seen bighorn sheep, moose, deer, elk, chipmunk, marmot … bring your binoculars. The Big Meadows (if I remember the name correctly) is the place where you can often see a herd of moose or big horn sheep. I was carefully watching these big horn sheep, and somebody tapped my shoulder. I turned my head. It was my graduate school classmate. I never met him since I left graduate school.
My awesome hiking boot: One day I was at an Iowa shoe store. In some random chat, the boss said “I have one pair of your shoes. Salomon has some of the best hiking boots”. “I was just wearing this shoe hiking Rocky mountain national park not long ago, it is light, not slippery, handles all types of rock conditions, water proof, and very fast to dry..”. “Oh, you were at RMNN? You know, every summer, I drive there to hike with my sun, we do 10+ hours hike near grand lake…”
Okay, here is my awsomeish hiking boot. No need to tie shoe lace! You just tighten them and tuck them in.
