Rocky Mountain National Park

Dec 27, 20243 min read

A short but sweet visit that brought so many great memories. We had two and a half days in the park, but we made the most of it. Mid October was a beautiful time to visit. We had some chilly and windy mornings, but mid day the temperature was nice (not too hot or cold). We even got some snow on our second day.

Day 1:

Our pass/window to access Bear Lake Road was from 5-7am. We woke up early and made it into the park before sunrise. As we laced up our hiking boots and put on our layers we got to witness a gorgeous sunrise. We made a quick trek to Bear Lake to watch the last few moments of the sunrise, then started the hike to Mills Lake. It was around a 5 mile hike with an elevation of 9,940 feet! It was an incredibly beautiful hike. The terrain was not strenuous, but it is important to be mindful of the elevation if you are from an area like us, where we are not as high above sea level.

After our hike we checked into our Airbnb, rested for a bit, and then went out for lunch in the Estes Park area. We had a very delicious lunch at a great brunch spot called Notchtop. I had the Country Fried Steak and it was so good. Andrew had the Banana Bread French Toast combo which he loved. Once we finished eating we explored some of the downtown shops of Estes Park.

We drove back through the park to get back to our Airbnb for the evening and this is where we saw our first elk sighting, pictured below. As we were driving through we noticed a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road. We knew this was a sign that there would be something interesting to see. We pulled over as well and there we saw a large, lone elk in the middle of the meadow just minding his own business. It was so neat to see!

Day 2:

Another early morning in the park to see the sunrise and catch some wildlife sightings. Can you tell we’re early birds? A little after 7am we entered the park. Shockingly as soon as we passed the welcome sign, before we even greeted the park ranger we saw a large herd of maybe 20 elk along the tree line. We would later see another big group in the meadow (also pictured).

Our hikes this day were pretty easy ones that provided us the opportunity to spend a big portion of the day sight seeing. This is also the day it snowed and in some areas towards the end of the day, visibility was not great. Getting to see snow in the park was beautiful. The wind however was brutal.

Snow and elk were some of the highlights, but another highlight for me was getting to see a Pika within just mere feet of me. For those of you reading and have never heard of a Pika, Andrew and I describe them as a mountainous hamster. Sounds silly, but they are just so cute!

For lunch we went to a nearby town called Grand Lake, grabbed a quick bite to eat, walked around, and then picked up some fudge for the road. I highly recommend visiting Moose Mountain Fudge and trying the Heath toffee fudge.