We visited RMNP in May 2016 while staying in Estes Park during Big Trip #1.

We visited Rocky Mountain National Park on our first Big Trip, in 2016. Due to road closures and trail conditions, we weren’t able to experience the park nearly as much as we had planned, so look for an update here after we return on a future Airstream trip!

Our base for visiting the National Park was the cutesy, touristy, crowded town of Estes Park, just outside RMNP. We detailed our eating, drinking, and exploring adventures in Estes Park in this post.

Hiking

How did we have a scenic, dog-friendly walk in RMNP, you ask? It is a National Park, after all, and they don’t like dogs. Well, Old Fall River Road, a scenic drive into the western portion of the park, hadn’t opened yet for the season due to the snow still present at elevation, and dogs are allowed on roads in the National Park. Normally, walking down a road isn’t so peaceful, but when there are no cars and we’re the only people walking down said road, it’s fantastic. We three walked up a couple miles, got some good mountain views and stopped at a little waterfall, and saw nary a soul.

Otherwise, RMNP was crowded and muddy (’tis the season) and increasingly windy and snowing, so we left. We’d like to return on another trip and do more hiking, sans mud and dog (don’t tell B). The snow-topped Rockies were incredibly gorgeous, and the valleys were loaded with elk on their Springtime migration to higher ground. Apparently the mating season bugling of the bull elk each fall is quite entertaining, so maybe we’ll come back for that another year.