We have been to the east side of Rocky Mountain National Park a few times, and I have been itching to see the west side. The closest town to the western entrance, is Grand Lake, Colorado. Our RV park is about 1 mile from the park entrance.
This is actually a perk, because like some other national parks, Rocky Mountain has moved to a timed entry system.
Essentially you have to “book” a 2 hour window for you to enter the park- and they sell out, so you aren’t guaranteed to get what you want. However, timed entry is required from 9 am to 2 pm. and being so close to the entrance, all we had to do is arrive before 8:30 to get in line.
Our plan for our first day in the park was to drive up Toll House Rd. (the main scenic drive) to the Alpine visitor center and work our way back, hiking short trails along the way.
The views along the way are spectacular.
We got to the visitor center, but then we noticed that there is a one way gravel road that looked interesting, so we decided to drive that before looking at hikes.
The road was narrow, but in pretty good shape, so it was an easy drive. We stopped whenever there was a pull off to check it out. Some had nice views, some had hiking trails. One stop was Chasm Falls, a pretty cool waterfall that was a short walk from the road. That was one of the more interesting stops.
As we approached the end of the road (which is 9 miles long) the weather started looking a bit ominous.
We knew rain was in the forecast but we hoped to beat it. Just before reaching pavement again, we saw a bunch of people taking pictures- turns out there were some bull elk nearby.
Armed with my good camera, I got a few good shots before we moved on.
Soon after that the rain started- and the hail- so our plan of hiking went out the window, so to speak. On the way down the hill I caught sight of a bull moose, just a few yards from the road, but Paul was driving and it was a torrential downpour, so, no pictures.
After a day of vegging out, we decided to head in the other direction, towards the town of Grand Lake. Grand Lake is home to the headwaters of the Colorado River. It looks a little different here than it does at home in Arizona. The Lake, and town, are called Grand Lake, because the Colorado River used to be called the Grand River, before it was renamed due to the existence of the Rio Grande.
The town is a small one, typical of tourist towns, with restaurants and shopping along the waterfront. Our first item on the agenda was to hike to Adams Falls, technically a short trail to a waterfall, but the trail continues on, so we hiked for 2 miles before turning back.
I really enjoyed the trail, because every few minutes the view changed and we saw something new.
Done hiking, we headed to the waterfront to check out the annual Wooden Boat festival. There were a couple of dozen wooden boats to look at , which didn’t take long, and then we looked for a place for lunch.
The view from our table was the best thing about lunch. It gave us a decent view of Grand Lake. After a little more shopping, we headed home.
Because our plans to hike the short trails in the park was thwarted by the weather, the next day we did a “take 2” and headed up to the Alpine Visitor Center. Our first “hike” is affectionately known as Huffer Trail.
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It starts at the visitor center and goes up. Its very short at .63 miles round trip, but it ends at 12,000 feet. Hence the name.
There were signs along the way that explained why none of us felt like we could breathe. Although the oxygen level in our air remains constant at 21%, the air pressure is decreased, and the oxygen molecules are more spread out- so, each breath we take contains less oxygen than we are used to...hence the huffing.
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As soon as we reached the top of the trail, we realized there were elk in the area. About 14 males, lounging around, enjoying the day. We couldn’t see too much of them except all the antlers poking up from the grassy area.
Once we had our fill, we headed down the hill to our next short hike- Medicine Bow Trail. Round trip is .83 miles, with essentially no gain.
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From here we could see the same bull elks we saw before, from a different vantage point. As we walked the trail, we realized there was a lone female, hunkered down on her own.
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Very soon we were back at the truck and noticed people taking pictures. There were two cow elk munching on the greenery nearby.
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Continuing down the road, our next stop was Irene Lake . No wildlife here, except the new to me Clark’s Nutcracker- but the lake is pretty and it was only .85 miles to walk around it. It was a bonus that there were nice picnic tables where we could have lunch.
Our final stop/hike of the day was the Holzwar Historic Site. The Holzwar family settled here in the late 1800s, and by 1920 had created a dude and trout fishing ranch. They owned the land until the 1970s, at which time it was the last parcel of private land to be sold to the National Park. One of the conditions was that they retain the historic aspect of the homestead, so several of the buildings are still standing.
Our “push” hike of the week was the 7.4 mile hike(1400 ft gain) to Grand Ditch. Along the way we met up with a small group of college students who were out measuring and making notes about beaver activity or lack thereof.
They are backpacking into the wilderness to make these reports. As we chatted with them, I mentioned some flowers and plants I had seen, and they all knew their flora and fauna-by name. It was actually really nice to come in contact with young people who care about our natural world.
In my “down” time, I took some pictures of the hummingbirds:
