Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado can’t be missed. If you can travel from Grand Lake on the west side to Estes Park on the east side, you won’t regret it! On our journey from west to east we saw moose, elk and a black bear!

Rocky Mountain National Park Highlights on Monday, September 4 and Tuesday, September 5, 2017

• The animals – moose, elk, black bear, Stellar’s Jay (bird)
• Adams Falls (west side)
• Continental Divide (middle)
• Many Parks Curve Overlook (middle/east side)
• Alberta Falls (east side)
• Bear Lake (east side)

I had done all of the driving up to this point of the trip and as we were leaving Maroon Bells, it finally caught up to me. Mike’s foot was starting to feel better, so he offered to drive us to the Grand Lake entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). While I-70 east was easy, cruise control driving, the way the GPS took us to RMNP was insane! It was up and down a mountainside, narrow roads, and quite honestly, made my heart skip some beats. Luckily, it didn’t snow or rain, so we made it to the RMNP without incident. We started our trip with the traditional “National Park” sign and then drove by the lodge to get a picture and view of Grand Lake. If you have a few minutes to spare, it’s worth parking in the lot and seeing the beautiful lake.

You’ll start to contemplate your existing retirement plans and see yourself here. It is so peaceful! Again, make sure you have the Annual National Park Pass for $80 or risk spending $30 just for this park. If you want a map of the park, here it is: https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/upload/ROMOmap1_small.pdf

From here, we stopped at the Kawuneeche Visitor Center, where we made it in the door about a minute before closing. The park ranger was kind enough to give us a map and make a few recommendations. His best advice was to drive up and down the main street, especially at dawn or dusk for the best opportunity to see animals like elk or moose. He also heeded us that if we saw two cars pulled over, to go ahead and be the third, because this meant animals! We drove the main strip and pulled into a few of the points of interest, but we didn’t do any hiking until we got to the last pull off on the left, which was the Colorado River Trailhead. The first part of the walk is a bit steep, but then it’s quite level after that and has a main intersection that allows you to choose different trails. During one of the sections, we looked up and spotted an animal. We were so caught off guard that we ended up scaring the “elk-moose”, whatever it was, before we got a good look. We’re convinced it was a moose, but without our photographic evidence, we couldn’t say for sure.

As the sun started to set, we did as the ranger advised and drove the main strip. It didn’t take long before we saw groups of cars pulled over looking at herds of elk. We were lucky that people were willing to share their binoculars for better views and a park ranger was also present at one of the stops offering information about bugling (the noise that elk make). We didn’t get any elk close ups and didn’t see a moose, but we were exhausted and knew it would be a good idea to get some sleep so we could return to the main road before the sunrise. We filled the car with gas in Grand Lake and then we used Booking.com* to find a nearby, last minute hotel for the night. We stayed at America’s Best Value Inn-Bighorn Lodge. The receptionist office is not 24 hours, so make sure you check the closing time for any hotel you’re considering. We arrived at the receptionist office shortly before closing and got a nice, clean room. After two nights in the car and five out of the previous six nights, I was ready for a shower and a bed to rest my head.

Our plan worked! Early to bed and early to rise! We dropped our room key in the dropbox and were back on the main strip before the sunrise (sunrise was: 6:35 am). We couldn’t believe it – there were SO MANY UP CLOSE ELK! We had a blast stopping in the pull offs and on the side of the road to capture photos and video of the adult and young elk. We got some great ones of elk crossing the street and grazing on the side of the road.

Once we were satisfied with our elk experience, we drove back out of the park and to a separate section of the park where Adams Falls is located. You actually drive through part of downtown Grand Lake to get there. There’s a large parking lot, facilities and a short hike to a beautiful waterfall. We even got lucky and saw a deer here! As our seventh national park on this trip, Arches National Park was the only one where we didn’t come across a deer. I’m not sure if it was the time of day or if it was because it was the Tuesday after Labor Day, but we got the place to ourselves. We also got another wonderful view of Grand Lake.

Back in the car, we drove back into the rest of the park and past the Kawuneeche Visitor Center. We drove slowly, as we wanted to see animals. We saw a car pulled over and decided to go see what they were looking at. We were rewarded and saw a moose grazing. At one point, the moose even looked straight at us and I got some cool shots with my Nikon Coolpix L340*.

Just when we thought the show might be over, an adolescent moose appeared out of nowhere. Our car and the one in front of us, inched forward and then we got to see the momma moose cross the street and the adolescent one scurry across close behind. I was so happy that Mike was ready with the camera and got a video of the whole thing!

At this point, we were satisfied and started our drive to the tundra. On the way, we stopped to take a look at Lake Irene, which was pretty and the Continental Divide. By the Alpine Visitor Center, which was actually quite busy, we made the extremely windy and cold walk up the stairs on the Alpine Ridge Trail. There’s a sign at the top that says “elevation 12,005 feet above sea level” which makes for a good photo op. We continued our journey east through the park toward Estes Park. We made a few stops at places like the Lava Cliffs and Forest Canyon Overlook. While we were at Many Parks Curve Overlook and enjoying the panoramic viewing platform, we saw a group of people gathered and sure enough, they were looking at a black bear! It wasn’t super close, but luckily the zoom feature on my camera really helped us to get a better view.

Continuing through the park, we followed the signs to Bear Lake. A huge sign said there were no parking spots and to take the shuttle, but we took our chances. We found a spot in the Bear Lake parking lot and hiked to Alberta Falls. This waterfall is incredible!

There are huge rocks alongside it that you can climb on and find great places for selfies! From here, we went to Bear Lake and watched the birds. The blue and black bird known as Steller’s Jay was here and really beautiful to see. On our drive down from Bear Lake, we found another great opportunity to see male and female elk. We pulled the car over and took advantage of the photo opportunity.

We absolutely LOVED RMNP and will be back again! We made the easy 90 minute trip to Denver and I hope to tell you all about this wonderful city soon!