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Mountain Range

Rocky Mountain National Park is about an hour and a half drive northwest from Denver.  This 265,770 acre park has some of the most spectacular scenery in the country.

Peak and Alpine Lake

Park elevations range from about 7,500 feet to well over 14,000 feet.  Altitude sickness is a common issue at these higher elevations and it's recommended that you give your body 2 or 3 days to adjust before any great exertion. We didn't have much time to acclimate though, landing in Denver on an early flight, driving straight to the park and hitting the trails early afternoon. We both experienced a few altitude related issues, but not enough to really impact the trip.

Snow Storm

We headed to the park in early October, which can be a volatile weather period. We started our hike in the mid 70's Fahrenheit and the temperatures were hovering near the single digits and teens about 24 hours later.

Tent

We hunkered down in our tent for a couple of days to let the snow storm pass and temperatures rise a little.

Warning

This warning proved to be dead on....about 30 minutes after passing it, the snow started and didn't let up for over a day. We had planned on climbing up to Flattop Mountain from here, but the weather kept us from going any higher.

Snow

The snow fell and fell hard at times.  The wide open expanses let us see what was coming from miles away.

Tent in the Snow

The trees provided a little shelter from the snow and extremely high winds. Camp fires are not permitted in most areas of the park, so we bundled up and made do.

Mountain Snow

The snow did add a beautiful element to the views.

Alpine Meadow

These naturally occurring meadows dotted the landscape.  Elk seemed particularly fond of these areas.

Continental Divide

The Continental Divide runs through the middle of Rocky Mountain National Park. The views from the numerous high peaks are simply awesome.

Elk

The wildlife in this park is quite different than what we have back east.  Bighorn Sheep, Mule Deer, Elk, Moose, Mountain Lions, Coyotes, Eagles, Black Bear and lots more call this area home.

Another Elk

We were lucky to see a number of elk on our journey.  It was mating season during our early October trip which was probably a factor in our high number of sightings.

Deer

We also saw a few mule deer on our trip. They didn't seem very skittish or concerned about our presence.

Chipmunk

These little guys were everywhere! They also didn't seem to concerned about us.

Sunset

The forests give way to alpine tundra at the higher elevations.  Trees typically don't grow here above a certain altitude due to extreme weather conditions.

Sunset and Storm

The sky let us know what was coming overnight and the next day.

Down the Mountain

Once the weather cleared, we headed back down the mountain.

Great View

There are over 359 miles of hiking trails in the Rocky Mountain National Park. 

Alpine Lake

The variety of terrain and natural features was really amazing: lakes, ponds, forests, mountain peaks, streams, meadows, tundra........

Stream

There are over 450 miles of streams in the park and about 150 lakes.  I was surprised at how many of them hold trout and other fish given the high altitude and harsh winters.