Today we leave our campsite in WaKeeney, Kansas to head to Rocky Mountain National Park! If any of you have driven through Kansas, you know how horrible it is! The wind was so crazy- we thought our whole camper might get tossed off the road! We saw a semi and a camper tipped over so we took our time and finally entered Colorado.

 

Upon arriving at the national park, we had to do a reservation check in before we got to the main gates. Rocky Mountain National Park has only been open for two weeks, and they are using a reservation system to limit the number of people allowed in the park. Luckily, we have had this vacation planned for a while so we easily got through the check point and into the park with our camping reservation. 

We camped at Glacier Basin Campground. At around 9000 feet, this campground is the highest elevation either of us have ever camped at, and as we would soon learn, is subject to some crazy mountain storms! 

We parked the camper and got our campsite set up, then wanted to explore some of the park. A nice part about Glacier Basin campground is the fact that there is a shuttle available to take you to the bus system that travels through the park. We decided to hop on the bus to take us up to Bear Lake. 

Bear Lake is a VERY popular destination in Rocky Mountain National Park. The lake is beautiful, and the hike to it was maybe 500 feet. Lots of people were at this lake. We kept hiking, and saw 3 more alpine lakes (Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes). Each lake was incredibly beautiful! At the end point of Emerald Lake, there were quite a few people. We also wanted to be sure we got back to the bus stop before the busses ended for the night, so we took a few pictures and enjoyed the views for a little while, then headed back down. 

 

After the drive and our hikes, we decided to settle in for the night and enjoy a little relaxation time by the fire. 

The next day, we took Trail Ridge Road which connects the east and west parts of the park. This road is subject to closures because of unpredictable weather. We were lucky that it was a beautiful morning and we were able to take the drive as far as we would want to go. 

On the drive, we stopped at a few viewing areas, Rainbow Curve, Many Parks Curve, and a few others. Once we had arrived at alpine elevation, we stopped at Forest Canyon Overlook. This was a cool overlook that you walked a short distance to. This was a rather neat overlook area- there were a bunch of marmots around, we could see herds of elk in the distance, and the alpine vegetation was incredible! 

 

We got to a point called Rock Cut, where you can do a mile hike to the top alpine. The hiking in Rocky Mountain proved tough with the high elevations we are most definitely NOT used to! I like to do a little more rock climbing and adventurous things than Scott does, so I climbed up the rocks to see the views while Scott stayed safely on the ground. We even heard Pika! I have been wanting to see a Pika ever since we learned what they were last summer- but they are an elusive species.

 

We continued along Trail Ridge Road, going down the mountains on the west side. We ended at Kawaneeche Valley, English name “Coyote Valley.” This was an incredible valley area that reminded us of Yosemite Valley, but without all the hoards of people! We did a little down and back hike in the valley, and even saw a moose (shout out to Scott who is apparently an expert moose sighter!) and an elk herd in the distance! 

 

Kawaneeche Valley was as far as we wanted to venture on Trail Ridge Road, so we turned back and headed back toward the campground. As we headed back up the mountains, we saw the weather turning. We had talked with a park ranger the day before about wanting to hike up to Sky Pond, and she warned us to make sure we were back below tree line by early afternoon as storms often come in at that time. She wasn’t kidding! We were driving through high winds and clouds in the mountains- good thing we didn’t have the camper behind us! 

 

The further we traveled down the mountain, the more weather we encountered. Back at the campsite, we decided to rest a little after we ate lunch. Well, this would be the last “good” weather we would see during our time in the Rockies. Later in the evening, a massive hail storm came through- marble sized hail came down for probably 10-15 minutes! The hail then turned to snow. As much as we hated to do it, we cooked dinner inside the camper and hunkered down for the night.