Rocky Mountain National Park's Best Hikes
Lace up your boots and get ready to discover the vast wilderness of Rocky Mountain National Park, where the windswept tundra comprises an ecosystem of hundreds of species of wildflowers, and the sculpted peaks silhouetted against the blue sky function a dramatic reminder of the last 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 a hundredth anniversary of one of America’s oldest nationwide parks within the time-honored tradition – backpack on, strolling sticks in hand and sense of surprise restored.
It’s an enormous place, so that can assist you discover your way, listed below are a few of Rocky Mountain’s finest hikes.
Bear Lake
Bear Lake is among the park’s hottest locations for first-time guests, and with good reason. From right here you’ll have a entrance-row vantage level of the dramatic glacial valleys and california posters hulking granite summits that make Rocky Mountain such a singular landscape. With ten lakes within the space and superb vistas, it's best to definitely anticipate large crowds.
Hikes here range from simple 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 efficient alternative, as is the Loch (6.2 miles), which will be prolonged to the exquisite Lake of Glass and Sky Pond (9.8 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 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 known for its various scenery. On this hike you will climb as much as the treeline and an alpine lake before dropping back down by 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-approach journey that requires no backtracking – and what’s more, it’s principally downhill. You can’t miss Lake Helene, which sits serenely beneath the imposing tough-lower cliffs of Notchtop and 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 simply going to Lake Helene and back (5.8 miles).
Longs Peak & Chasm Lake
Iconic in every approach, Longs Peak is the top of RMNP and certainly one of Colorado’s classic 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 slim traverses, vertiginous cliff faces and coronary heart-pounding clambering up polished slabs of rock. Most people begin the climb by 3am so as to reach the summit before noon.
The great news is that you simply don’t have to reach the summit or turn your legs to jelly. Chasm Lake, situated on the foot of the Diamond – Longs’ legendary east face the place technical climbers rope as much as scale the 1000ft wall – is routinely rated as one of many park’s greatest hikes. Chasm features all of the spectacular surroundings of the height with out the risk and arduous ascent. Nonetheless, at 8.four miles round journey, you’ll still have to be in excellent shape.
Gem Lake
At the northeastern finish of the park is Lumpy Ridge, composed of 1.eight-billion-year-old granite formations that had been sculpted by the elements reasonably than by glaciers. This markedly completely different style of abrasion has resulted in an array of whimsically formed boulders, balancing rocks and colossal domes. The trail to Gem Lake is a great way to discover the world, with superb vistas back to the Continental Divide all the way in which up to the bijou-like lake.
It’s an enormous place, so that can assist you discover your way, listed below are a few of Rocky Mountain’s finest hikes.
Bear Lake
Bear Lake is among the park’s hottest locations for first-time guests, and with good reason. From right here you’ll have a entrance-row vantage level of the dramatic glacial valleys and california posters hulking granite summits that make Rocky Mountain such a singular landscape. With ten lakes within the space and superb vistas, it's best to definitely anticipate large crowds.
Hikes here range from simple 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 efficient alternative, as is the Loch (6.2 miles), which will be prolonged to the exquisite Lake of Glass and Sky Pond (9.8 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 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 known for its various scenery. On this hike you will climb as much as the treeline and an alpine lake before dropping back down by 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-approach journey that requires no backtracking – and what’s more, it’s principally downhill. You can’t miss Lake Helene, which sits serenely beneath the imposing tough-lower cliffs of Notchtop and 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 simply going to Lake Helene and back (5.8 miles).
Longs Peak & Chasm Lake
Iconic in every approach, Longs Peak is the top of RMNP and certainly one of Colorado’s classic 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 slim traverses, vertiginous cliff faces and coronary heart-pounding clambering up polished slabs of rock. Most people begin the climb by 3am so as to reach the summit before noon.
The great news is that you simply don’t have to reach the summit or turn your legs to jelly. Chasm Lake, situated on the foot of the Diamond – Longs’ legendary east face the place technical climbers rope as much as scale the 1000ft wall – is routinely rated as one of many park’s greatest hikes. Chasm features all of the spectacular surroundings of the height with out the risk and arduous ascent. Nonetheless, at 8.four miles round journey, you’ll still have to be in excellent shape.
Gem Lake
At the northeastern finish of the park is Lumpy Ridge, composed of 1.eight-billion-year-old granite formations that had been sculpted by the elements reasonably than by glaciers. This markedly completely different style of abrasion has resulted in an array of whimsically formed boulders, balancing rocks and colossal domes. The trail to Gem Lake is a great way to discover the world, with superb vistas back to the Continental Divide all the way in which up to the bijou-like lake.