Rocky Mountain National Park's Best Hikes
Lace up your boots and get ready to discover the huge wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Park, the place the windswept tundra incorporates an ecosystem of hundreds of species of wildflowers, and the sculpted peaks silhouetted in opposition to the blue sky serve as a dramatic reminder of the final ice age. Traverse this great backbone of the Continental Divide and listen for bugling elk or spot recent bear scat beneath your feet. Come celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of one of America’s oldest nationwide parks in the time-honored tradition – backpack on, walking sticks in hand and sense of surprise restored.
It’s an enormous place, so to help you find your means, listed below are some of Rocky Mountain’s finest hikes.
Bear Lake
Bear Lake is without doubt one of the park’s most popular destinations for first-time guests, and with good reason. From here you’ll have a entrance-row vantage point of the dramatic glacial valleys and hulking granite summits that make Rocky Mountain such a singular landscape. With ten lakes in the space and superb vistas, you need to definitely expect giant crowds.
Hikes here range from simple jaunts around Bear Lake (0.5 miles) or to Alberta Falls (1.6 miles) to more challenging excursions that observe the glacial valleys as much as their origins. Mills Lake (5.6 miles) is a good selection, as is the Loch (6.2 miles), which can be prolonged to the exquisite Lake of Glass and Sky Pond (9.eight miles), each of which are as serene as their names suggest. And while Flattop Mountain (12,324ft, 8.eight miles) might not be the park’s best summit, there’s no denying its magnetic pull from down below. Use the park shuttles to get to the trailhead.
Bear Lake to Fern Lake
This dayhike is a ranger favourite and recognized for its various scenery. On this hike you'll climb up to the treeline and an alpine lake before dropping back down via fields of scree and into a forested valley. Here you’ll pass more lakes, waterfalls, aspen groves and elk-inhabited meadows.
Due to the park shuttle system, this is a one-method journey that requires no backtracking – and what’s more, it’s mostly downhill. You possibly can’t miss Lake Helene, which sits serenely beneath the imposing rough-minimize cliffs of Notchtop and california posters Flattop mountains. To do this hike, park at Fern Lake Trailhead (the endpoint), then take the shuttle to Bear Lake Trailhead. Shorten the trip by merely going to Lake Helene and back (5.eight miles).
Longs Peak & Chasm Lake
Iconic in every approach, Longs Peak is the pinnacle of RMNP and one of Colorado’s traditional climbs. The tallest peak in the park (14,259ft), its exhilarating and exhausting Keyhole Route is on many visitors’ to-do list. The highest of this route is the crux, consisting of slender traverses, vertiginous cliff faces and heart-pounding clambering up polished slabs of rock. Most individuals start the climb by 3am with the intention to reach the summit earlier than noon.
The great news is that you simply don’t have to achieve the summit or flip your legs to jelly. Chasm Lake, located on the foot of the Diamond – Longs’ legendary east face where technical climbers rope as much as scale the 1000ft wall – is routinely rated as one of many park’s best hikes. Chasm options all the spectacular scenery of the height without the risk and arduous ascent. However, at 8.four miles spherical journey, you’ll still should be in superb shape.
Gem Lake
At the northeastern end of the park is Lumpy Ridge, composed of 1.eight-billion-year-old granite formations that have been sculpted by the elements quite than by glaciers. This markedly completely different model of erosion has resulted in an array of whimsically formed boulders, balancing rocks and colossal domes. The path to Gem Lake is a great way to explore the world, with superb vistas back to the Continental Divide all the way as much as the bijou-like lake.
It’s an enormous place, so to help you find your means, listed below are some of Rocky Mountain’s finest hikes.
Bear Lake
Bear Lake is without doubt one of the park’s most popular destinations for first-time guests, and with good reason. From here you’ll have a entrance-row vantage point of the dramatic glacial valleys and hulking granite summits that make Rocky Mountain such a singular landscape. With ten lakes in the space and superb vistas, you need to definitely expect giant crowds.
Hikes here range from simple jaunts around Bear Lake (0.5 miles) or to Alberta Falls (1.6 miles) to more challenging excursions that observe the glacial valleys as much as their origins. Mills Lake (5.6 miles) is a good selection, as is the Loch (6.2 miles), which can be prolonged to the exquisite Lake of Glass and Sky Pond (9.eight miles), each of which are as serene as their names suggest. And while Flattop Mountain (12,324ft, 8.eight miles) might not be the park’s best summit, there’s no denying its magnetic pull from down below. Use the park shuttles to get to the trailhead.
Bear Lake to Fern Lake
This dayhike is a ranger favourite and recognized for its various scenery. On this hike you'll climb up to the treeline and an alpine lake before dropping back down via fields of scree and into a forested valley. Here you’ll pass more lakes, waterfalls, aspen groves and elk-inhabited meadows.
Due to the park shuttle system, this is a one-method journey that requires no backtracking – and what’s more, it’s mostly downhill. You possibly can’t miss Lake Helene, which sits serenely beneath the imposing rough-minimize cliffs of Notchtop and california posters Flattop mountains. To do this hike, park at Fern Lake Trailhead (the endpoint), then take the shuttle to Bear Lake Trailhead. Shorten the trip by merely going to Lake Helene and back (5.eight miles).
Longs Peak & Chasm Lake
Iconic in every approach, Longs Peak is the pinnacle of RMNP and one of Colorado’s traditional climbs. The tallest peak in the park (14,259ft), its exhilarating and exhausting Keyhole Route is on many visitors’ to-do list. The highest of this route is the crux, consisting of slender traverses, vertiginous cliff faces and heart-pounding clambering up polished slabs of rock. Most individuals start the climb by 3am with the intention to reach the summit earlier than noon.
The great news is that you simply don’t have to achieve the summit or flip your legs to jelly. Chasm Lake, located on the foot of the Diamond – Longs’ legendary east face where technical climbers rope as much as scale the 1000ft wall – is routinely rated as one of many park’s best hikes. Chasm options all the spectacular scenery of the height without the risk and arduous ascent. However, at 8.four miles spherical journey, you’ll still should be in superb shape.
Gem Lake
At the northeastern end of the park is Lumpy Ridge, composed of 1.eight-billion-year-old granite formations that have been sculpted by the elements quite than by glaciers. This markedly completely different model of erosion has resulted in an array of whimsically formed boulders, balancing rocks and colossal domes. The path to Gem Lake is a great way to explore the world, with superb vistas back to the Continental Divide all the way as much as the bijou-like lake.