Last year, Haley and I flew to Colorado to explore Denver and trek through Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a great time exploring the city and taking in a Rockies game before driving into the mountains. The Bear Lake area was stunningly beautiful while we hiked. There were so many opportunities to run into wildlife, whether on the trail when we stumbled upon a couple of elk around a corner, or while parking the car in downtown Estes Park. Even just driving through the park, up and over the mountains, seeing the different climates and environments, was such a wonderful experience. We even got to see a moose walking through a parking lot!

Another fun activity we did was white water rafting. Because of the time of year, the water was pretty low, so the rapids were only class I. It was a great way to see the headwaters of the Colorado River, going through canyons and seeing the mountains from a different angle. There was a decent amount of down time that led to, as the boat captain called it, “river therapy”. We did get soaked several times, but mostly from paddle splashing from other boats. Overall, would recommend in general, but either go earlier in the year, or do the half day trip instead of the full day one.

Being a national park, RMNP is open 24/7, meaning we just had to go early morning and late at night to look at the sky. The morning sunrise wsa gorgeous, with the peaks slowly becoming illuminated in dazzling reds and oranges. At night, going up to top of Trail Ridge Road (over 12k feet elevation) and away from light sources meant we got a great opportunity to see the Milky Way with the naked eye. Not quite as bright as the camera saw it, but after your eyes get accustomed to the dark, it was pretty cool to see it live for yourself.

Overall, Rocky Mountain National Park was pretty awesome and had something for everyone, and would highly recommend everyone goes out and visits.

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