ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
August 2024
August 2024
After landing Thursday evening and spending the night in Boulder, we drove to Estes Park. We walked around town and had lunch, then entered Rocky Mountain National Park in the late afternoon. We took a quick drive up to Many Parks Curve and then drove back into town for dinner and drinks at The Stanley Hotel (the inspiration for The Shining).
The next morning we ate breakfast and packed up for a long day in the park. We drove up the Bear Lake corridor and hiked around Bear Lake and then Sprague Lake. Next, we took the Old Fall River Road, a scenic one-way dirt road up to the Alpine Visitor center at 11,796 feet. After a well-earned lunch, I took the short Alpine Ridge trail up to 12,000 feet. Now exhausted from the elevation, we drove back down to Estes Park for dinner.
On Sunday it was a chilly and windy morning, and we headed back up the Trail Ridge Road and stopped at Forest Canyon and Lava Cliffs. We continued past the Alpine Visitor Center to the continental divide at Milner Pass. We turned back toward Estes and made one more extremely windy stop at Rock Cut on the way out. We drove back to Boulder and went to see John Fogerty play at Red Rock Amphitheater before flying out the following morning.
© 2024 Will Krieger