Rocky Mountain National Park's Greatest Hikes
Lace up your boots and get ready to discover the huge wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Park, the place the windswept tundra contains an ecosystem of hundreds of species of wildflowers, and the sculpted peaks silhouetted against 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 fresh bear scat beneath your feet. Come celebrate the one centesimal anniversary of one in all America’s oldest nationwide parks in the time-honored tradition – backpack on, strolling sticks in hand and sense of marvel restored.
It’s a big 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 locations for first-time guests, and with good reason. From here you’ll have a front-row vantage level of the dramatic glacial valleys and hulking granite summits that make Rocky Mountain such a singular landscape. With ten lakes within the space and superb vistas, you need to definitely count on large crowds.
Hikes right here range from straightforward jaunts round Bear Lake (0.5 miles) or to Alberta Falls (1.6 miles) to more difficult excursions that comply with the glacial valleys up to their origins. Mills Lake (5.6 miles) is an effective selection, as is the Loch (6.2 miles), which may 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, 8.8 miles) will not be the park’s greatest 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 known for its various scenery. On this hike you may climb up to the treeline and an alpine lake before dropping back down by means of 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-way journey that requires no backtracking – and what’s more, it’s largely downhill. You possibly can’t miss Lake Helene, which sits serenely beneath the imposing rough-cut cliffs of Notchtop and travel posters Flattop mountains. To do this hike, park at Fern Lake Trailhead (the endpoint), then take the shuttle to Bear Lake Trailhead. Shorten the journey by simply going to Lake Helene and back (5.8 miles).
Longs Peak & Chasm Lake
Iconic in each manner, Longs Peak is the head of RMNP and one of Colorado’s classic climbs. The tallest peak within the park (14,259ft), its exhilarating and exhausting Keyhole Route is on many visitors’ to-do list. The top of this route is the crux, consisting of narrow traverses, vertiginous cliff faces and heart-pounding clambering up polished slabs of rock. Most people begin the climb by 3am with a view to reach the summit earlier than noon.
The nice news is that you simply don’t have to succeed in the summit or turn your legs to jelly. Chasm Lake, situated 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 finest hikes. Chasm options all of the spectacular scenery of the height with out the risk and arduous ascent. However, at 8.four miles round journey, you’ll nonetheless have to be in excellent shape.
Gem Lake
On the northeastern end of the park is Lumpy Ridge, composed of 1.eight-billion-yr-old granite formations that were sculpted by the weather rather than by glaciers. This markedly totally different style of erosion has resulted in an array of whimsically formed boulders, balancing rocks and colossal domes. The trail to Gem Lake is an effective way to explore the area, with superb vistas back to the Continental Divide all the way in which up to the bijou-like lake.
It’s a big 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 locations for first-time guests, and with good reason. From here you’ll have a front-row vantage level of the dramatic glacial valleys and hulking granite summits that make Rocky Mountain such a singular landscape. With ten lakes within the space and superb vistas, you need to definitely count on large crowds.
Hikes right here range from straightforward jaunts round Bear Lake (0.5 miles) or to Alberta Falls (1.6 miles) to more difficult excursions that comply with the glacial valleys up to their origins. Mills Lake (5.6 miles) is an effective selection, as is the Loch (6.2 miles), which may 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, 8.8 miles) will not be the park’s greatest 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 known for its various scenery. On this hike you may climb up to the treeline and an alpine lake before dropping back down by means of 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-way journey that requires no backtracking – and what’s more, it’s largely downhill. You possibly can’t miss Lake Helene, which sits serenely beneath the imposing rough-cut cliffs of Notchtop and travel posters Flattop mountains. To do this hike, park at Fern Lake Trailhead (the endpoint), then take the shuttle to Bear Lake Trailhead. Shorten the journey by simply going to Lake Helene and back (5.8 miles).
Longs Peak & Chasm Lake
Iconic in each manner, Longs Peak is the head of RMNP and one of Colorado’s classic climbs. The tallest peak within the park (14,259ft), its exhilarating and exhausting Keyhole Route is on many visitors’ to-do list. The top of this route is the crux, consisting of narrow traverses, vertiginous cliff faces and heart-pounding clambering up polished slabs of rock. Most people begin the climb by 3am with a view to reach the summit earlier than noon.
The nice news is that you simply don’t have to succeed in the summit or turn your legs to jelly. Chasm Lake, situated 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 finest hikes. Chasm options all of the spectacular scenery of the height with out the risk and arduous ascent. However, at 8.four miles round journey, you’ll nonetheless have to be in excellent shape.
Gem Lake
On the northeastern end of the park is Lumpy Ridge, composed of 1.eight-billion-yr-old granite formations that were sculpted by the weather rather than by glaciers. This markedly totally different style of erosion has resulted in an array of whimsically formed boulders, balancing rocks and colossal domes. The trail to Gem Lake is an effective way to explore the area, with superb vistas back to the Continental Divide all the way in which up to the bijou-like lake.