By: Ryan
If you haven’t been to Rocky Mountain National Park yet, imagine for a moment all of your most ideal visions of a snow-capped peak landscape, dotted with meadows, alpine lakes, conifer forests and wildlife aplenty. Those of you who have been there know it exists in RMNP!
We camped at the park’s Moraine campground, which may be the most beautiful venue for a campground we’ve seen yet. It sits atop a small hill above a meadow where a heard of elk grazes, with snow capped peaks lying beyond on three sides. The sun rises on one side, granting amazing views of the sunrise across the meadow, and sets on the other side behind dramatic snow capped peaks. The park has lots of campgrounds, especially in the summer months when the higher elevation ones open up, but its hard to imagine any of them having a more beautiful setting that Moraine Park.
If you haven’t been to Rocky Mountain National Park yet, imagine for a moment all of your most ideal visions of a snow-capped peak landscape, dotted with meadows, alpine lakes, conifer forests and wildlife aplenty. Those of you who have been there know it exists in RMNP!
We camped at the park’s Moraine campground, which may be the most beautiful venue for a campground we’ve seen yet. It sits atop a small hill above a meadow where a heard of elk grazes, with snow capped peaks lying beyond on three sides. The sun rises on one side, granting amazing views of the sunrise across the meadow, and sets on the other side behind dramatic snow capped peaks. The park has lots of campgrounds, especially in the summer months when the higher elevation ones open up, but its hard to imagine any of them having a more beautiful setting that Moraine Park.
Moraine Park is also very near many great trailheads. The lovely hikes to Cub Lake and Fern Falls/Lake both have their trailheads within about a mile of the campground. And the spectacular Bear Lake hikes are a short drive away. Any visitor to RMNP should absolutely try the hike to Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes from the Bear Lake trailhead. Its about 3.6 miles roundtrip to all three lakes along the same trail, and has some of the best alpine lake scenery available anywhere. Be prepared for some crowds - when we were there in mid May, there was still a few feet of snow on most parts of the trail, yet it was crowded with people. So in later summer, its likely quite busy, even on weekdays. But the views are worth it!
We also hiked to Calypso Cascades in the southeastern part of the park. We had to turn around before reaching the cascades due to an incoming lightning storm, but this is a great hike along a pretty river even before the cascades.
Rocky Mountain National Park is a splendid mountain wilderness, with all the wildlife, forests, mountains and more that you’d expect. It’s a spectacular place and warrants the high volume of visitors it receives. We loved it here, despite some chilly weather. Be sure to reserve a campsite in advance at the Moraine campground when you go (sites 228-235 or so have unbeatable views across the meadow below) and at the least do some hikes around Bear Lake. Trail Ridge Road was closed when we were there, but we’re told the drive is amazing, so check to see if that’s open too.
We also hiked to Calypso Cascades in the southeastern part of the park. We had to turn around before reaching the cascades due to an incoming lightning storm, but this is a great hike along a pretty river even before the cascades.
Rocky Mountain National Park is a splendid mountain wilderness, with all the wildlife, forests, mountains and more that you’d expect. It’s a spectacular place and warrants the high volume of visitors it receives. We loved it here, despite some chilly weather. Be sure to reserve a campsite in advance at the Moraine campground when you go (sites 228-235 or so have unbeatable views across the meadow below) and at the least do some hikes around Bear Lake. Trail Ridge Road was closed when we were there, but we’re told the drive is amazing, so check to see if that’s open too.