Rocky Mountain NP, CO
2022 Parks Road Trip Diary: Days 11-17
Rocky Mountain National Park is a top-tier national park in the US. Itâs got plenty of challenging but rewarding hikes, glacial lakes, and cool wildlife (elk!). This place was poppinâ over the fourth of July weekend.
Day 11: Arrival at Rocky Mountain
Spontaneous thunderstorms on the way north from Great Sand Dunes gave us a nice double rainbow to look at for a ~20 minute stretch. It was pretty wild â people were pulling over to take pictures. A continuation of the mountain weather weâd come to love.
We got to the campground pretty late and so as usual got right to setting up camp and cooking dinner. This time we resorted to ramen. We normally try to plan meals with a green veggie and lots of protein, but sometimes you just gotta give in and make shin.
Day 12: Getting our feet wet (figuratively) at Mills Lake
Rocky Mountain would be our longest stay yet: six nights. This was a relief â all the driving was really starting to get exhausting. Because we book campgrounds last minute, we rarely get large blocks of consecutive days and instead end up moving from site to site every one to two days. Thatâs okay though, the change of scenery keeps things feeling new.
The beauty of our first site became apparent in the morning đ
Since we did a more strenuous hike yesterday we wanted to fill our first full day at Rocky Mountain with something a little easier (i.e., a moderate on AllTrails). We chose to hike up to Mills Lake. Our first glacial lake of the trip!
I was very tempted to do the difficult extension to Black Lake but told myself Iâd go extra hard tomorrow, since this was our ârest dayâ.
Also, this was the first park where we started getting lots of warnings about the wildlife you might encounter and the danger it poses to you. I never know how seriously to take these warnings though â am I the intended audience, or is it more the sort of person who tries to pet a bear?
Seeing signs like this helped clarify the specific risks. I just had to chuckle at this one.
We never did find the habituated mountain goat, but we did see an elk right near the end! These guys are all over Rocky Mountain National Park; we ended up seeing about one every day.
Day 13: 12,600 ft
Today the big plan was our first strenuous hike of this park: Hallett Peak; 10.3 mi, 3300 ft elevation gain, and perhaps most excitingly hits an absolute elevation of 12,600 ft.
When you do any physical activity at elevations above ~8000 ft, you start to feel the effects of the lower oxygen on your body unless youâve acclimated to it. We hadnât really felt it yet despite most of the park being above that elevation, probably because weâve been traveling next to mountains for much of the trip so far. But still, this would be a test. At best we might just be more tired than usual, at worst weâd get altitude sickness which can cause debilitating headaches and nausea.
Above the treeline is where it began to get more difficult. The altitude was most apparent when drinking water, because seconds spent drinking are seconds youâre not breathing, and suddenly youâre out⌠of⌠breath.
But also here is where we encountered our first marmots. Curious and cute. A fun distraction from the pain!
Just before you hit Hallett Peak, you summit Flattop Mountain, which is about 500 ft lower than the peak. This was high enough to encounter some unmelted ice on the trail:
Then youâre at Flattopâs summit!
The ascent to Hallett peak from there was literally a climb, over boulders. It was so worth reaching the top though!
We seem to have passed the altitude test. Trying to summit all the 14k-ft peaks in North America is a thing people do. This was 12.6; whatâs another 1400 ft? Maybe Iâll try to join the club!
On the way home we took the public transit back to camp. One elk a day, as promised:
Day 14: Fourth of July
This was the morning we had to change campsites in the park. The new ground was called Moraine Park. Very pretty! (Edit: Oops, this is actually a pic of our second site in Glacier Basin. Whatever⌠itâs all pretty!)
This is also when my friend Ethan met up with us! He flew pretty far to visit some relatives, and us, and timed it so he could join us for a couple days.
This hike was a tour through some of the more easily accessible lakes in the park. The main attraction (in my opinion) was Lake Haiyaha.
When we got back we celebrated the fourth of July with a good old fashioned barbecue.
Ethan is someone who goes to the gym and actually cares about his upper body strength, whereas I do 15 curls of a 20 lb dumbbell maybe once a week at best. But when hiking, this kind of muscle mass is a disadvantage. That plus him having just come to this higher elevation meant altitude sickness hit him pretty hard that evening đ
We finished the day off with some smores and a sunset. Thank you Ethan for providing the smore materials even though you didnât partake that night â¤ď¸
No fireworks this Fourth of July (itâs a fire hazard), but thatâs okay.
Day 15: Sky Pond
Yesterday we had been talking about hiking to Sky Pond, a difficult hike (9.4 mi, 1750 ft elevation with a steep climb at the end). It was not a given that weâd do it today due to last nightâs altitude sickness struggles, but Ethan bounced back fast and got back on the trail đŞ
The main attraction of the hike is its final steep section leading up to the glacial lake called Sky Pond. As we were hiking to this point, a returning hiker tried to explain âyou climb a waterfallâ and I couldnât quite picture that.
Just to the right of the big waterfall is an area where you can climb rocks where water is only running gently down. Still made it a bit slippery though!
I could see the partyâs stress levels rise as they made their way up this part but to their credit they carefully looked for safe steps and kept pushing up.
It started to rain just as we were going back down the steep part, which heightened tensions a bit more again. But we made it out alive! (âŚbut no pics get taken when tensions are high)
We took it easy back at camp that evening. Ethan made the smores he never got to make the previous night and then set off back to see his relatives. Bye Ethan!
Day 16: Old Fall River Road
With two difficult hikes in a row it was time for another rest day. We chose what looked like the best moderate hike in an area we hadnât been to yet: Ouzel Falls.
We got done pretty early, leaving time to do the last thing we really wanted to do in this park: drive through Old Fall River Road. Itâs a scenic drive on a gravel road that winds through the mountains up to, essentially, one of the peaks in the park. Perfect for when youâre tired but still want those views đŞ
There were numerous pullout points along the long road. The best was one right before the visitor center; it had a âhikeâ called Alpine Ridge Trail (0.7 mi, 150 ft elev gain). Itâs a short (but steep!) walk up to a peak that has almost 360-degree views.
Day 17: Off to Wyoming
With Rocky Mountain National Park all done, that was it for Colorado. Next up: Grand Teton National Park. (Er, after 8 hours of driving.)
post originally written 7/23, backdated to match reality