Rocky Mountain National Park

Categories:Americas North America USA

by Yaoho |

on June 26, 2021

Info/Tips

Park Access/Time entry permit – Check NPS site for latest info. In 2021 summer, two types of permit were offered one with Bear Lake road Corridor access and one without. In 2021 Bear Lake Road permit was enforced from 5am to 6pm. Bear Lake Road can be access before 5am or after 6pm without a permit. You must enter during the 2 hour reservation window on your permit. The other permit without bear lake access is enforced from 9am to 3pm. Visitor with this type of permit can access all area of the park except Bear Lake Road Corridor.

Parking – With capacity control, parking directly at popular attractions are available. According to NPS Trailhead parking lots fill early in the day:
Glacier Gorge Trailhead: 6 am
Bear Lake Trailhead: 8:00 am
Park and Ride: 9:15 am
Wild Basin Corridors: 9:30 am

In our cases, we were able to find parking spaces at Bear Lake in the morning and late afternoon. Parking at Cub lake is also plenty. There is a park and ride parking lot available for Bear Lake road Corridor, check NPS site for latest shuttle information.

Weather – Afternoon thunderstorms are common at Rocky Mountain National Parks – bring a poncho or wind breaker. Bring a warm clothe if you are afraid of cold. Plan to start your hike early in the morning. Weather changes rapidly at the Park. Thunderstorm comes and goes in an hour and temperature may drop deep at high altitude. We encountered afternoon thunderstorms and hail 2 days out of the 3 days we were there. On our hike to Lake Haiyaha it turned from sunny to hail in less than 30 minutes. The sleet and rain were so freezing that we had to put on a light dawn and poncho to keep us dry and warm.

High altitude hiking is very tiring. Drink lots of water and take it slow. We did the bear lake to Lake Haiyaha hike (10,221′) on our first day in Rocky Mountain from Bear Lake Trailhead (9,475′) with 750 elevation gain. We did experience a little headache due to the high altitude.

Things to do

Bear Lake trailhead – Dream Lake – Emerald Lake – Lake Haiyaha

We had planned to hike the following loop – However it started raining/hailing when we reached Lake Haiyaha so we had to return to bear lake trailhead from Lake Haiyaha for a 4.9 mile total hike.

Bear Lake (0.1 miles from trailhead)
Dream lake (1 mile from trailhead)
Emerald Lake (0.4 mile from dream lake)
Lake Haiyaha (1.5 miles from Emerald lake)
Mills lake (1.8 miles from Lake Haiyaha)
Alberta Falls (1.7 miles from Mills Lake)
Back to bear lake parking (0.9 mile)

Cup Lake trailhead – Cup Lake – The Pool – Fern Lake trailhead

Cup Lake is 4.4 miles round trip from trailhead, we choose to do Cub Lake trail combine with the Pool to Fern Lake trail together (total 4.8 – 6 miles). This trail was impacted by the 2020 East Troublesome Fire rocky mountain fire, you will walk through section that were black from the fire and it is quite a sight. Access to Fern lake was still closed when we visited in June 2021.

Cub Lake (2.2 miles from cub lake trailhead)
The Pool (1 mile from Cub Lake)
Fern Lake Trailhead (1.7 Miles from The Pool)
Catch the shuttle to cub lake trail head or walk (0.9 miles)
- Shuttle bus stop is about 0.3 mile from Cub Lake trailhead and 0.7 mile from Fern Lake trailhead.

UTE trail

Beautiful trail with amazing views, check weather condition before starting on the trail, this hike is exposed there is no tree or cover. Lots of Marmot at the beginning of the trails. We did about 1.5 miles in and did not reach the turn off point but it started to rain so we had to turn around.

Drive Park Ridge Road

Deer ridge junction
Many Parks Curve Overlook
Rainbow curve overlook
hike part of ute trail (for a short distance)
Rock Cut
Lava Cliff Overlook
Gore Range Overlook
Alpine Visitor Center / Alpine Ridge Trail (0.3 miles from visitor center)
Medicine bow Curve Overlook
Forest Canyon Overlook
Milner pass overlook
Fairview Curve Overlook
Kawuneeche Visitor Center
It started raining/hailing just when we reached Alpine Visitor Center, we were not able to do the Alpine Ridge Trail and skipped some of the overlook Between Alpine Visitor center and Kawuneeche Visitor Center

Wild Basin Area

The attractions from Wild Station at south is not as popular as other regions. Road is rough with pot holes, but low clearance like sedan is doable
Copeland falls (0.2 miles from wild basin ranger station)
stop by lily lake (no hike)
edge of time rock (watch people rock climb?)
Chapel on the Rock on Rt 7
view point of Long Peak (highest peak in rocky)