Colorado - Denver & Rocky Mountain National Park

I (David) went to a workshop in Denver in late June. I decided to extend my trip by a few days to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Colorado is one of my favorite places, so I was really excited to hike and hang out in the mountains away from the Georgia summer humidity for a few days. Also this was my first solo trip, other than work trips, ever. So the experience was exciting all around!

The first few days I hung out in downtown Denver. After conference hours I was able to explore downtown a bit and some of the nearby neighborhoods. It's been about 8 years since I've been to Denver and things are changing quickly. The city is growing fast and lots of the inner neighborhoods have revitalized and are exciting places to be. Downtown is also booming with lots of development, both residential and commercial - along with new restaurants, brewpubs and shops. There's also lots of new rail transit - part of a regional initiative - that's creating a more sustainable community.

One thing I did notice about Denver is the large homeless population near the State Capitol. A colleague and I fished a girl out of a fountain after she passed out and fell in (scary). I'm not sure the cause in Denver, as an Atlantan I'm no stranger to seeing homeless people, but I thought the situation in Denver seemed more extreme. 😓

Downtown Denver from the Museum of Nature and Science.

Denver City/County building.

Bridge over the railroad near Union Station. A quickly developing part of town.

Parks and development along the South Platte River in downtown Denver. 

Downtown Denver at twilight.

Colorado Capitol building. I took a tour while I was here.

Colorado Senate

After the three day workshop wrapped up, I rented a car and headed up to the mountains for three more days of exploring. On the first day I made my way from Denver to Mount Evans. There's a road that leads all the way to the top of the 14,265 foot tall peak. The road is the highest paved road in North America (maybe the 5th in the world) and is only open from Memorial Day until the first major snowstorm in the fall. The drive is pretty easy, if not a little stressful with all the switchbacks near the top, but the views are amazing and well worth the short 1 hour drive from Denver.

Don't let the sign fool you, I walked up the last hundred feet to make it to the actual summit! It was a struggle!

Not much growing up here, but one hell of a view!

Summit Lake - a Denver city park - just below the top of Mount Evans

I <3 the juxtaposition of flower and snow!

After summiting Mount Evans, I drove towards my hotel in Estes Park, right outside Rocky Mountain National Park. Since I was planning a really long hike on the following day, I just took a couple mile evening hike from Bear Lake to Dream and Emerald Lakes. Since it was after 6pm traffic and crowds in the park weren't too bad and I got to enjoy a nice hike up the mountain to the lakes. The weather was perfect!

Rocky Mountain NP has lots of glacial moraines. 

Trail up to Emerald Lake.

Dream Lake - 2nd lake in the chain.

Breathtaking scenery.

Up around 9,000-10,000 feet there was still snow in late June.

Emerald Lake at sunset.

Emerald Lake money shot.

Leave it to me to find the only Korean restaurant for miles. ^_^

The following morning I woke up at 4:30 AM to make a 12+ mile round trip hike (solo) to Bluebird Lake deep in the Wild Basin portion of Rocky Mountain National Park. I arrived at the trail-head before 6:00AM and went on my way through the forest and mountains towards the lake. One thing I was a bit concerned about on this trip was running into a bear. I had actually seen one from my car the night before, so that didn't help matters. I realize that statistically, there's a very low chance of running into a bear, but just like I think about sharks while swimming in the ocean, out in the mountains alone I thought about bears...a lot.

About 2 hours and 4 miles into my trip I was traveling through a high meadow when I heard a rustle in the bushes to my side. This noise startled me and I started singing my anti-bear song louder so whatever it was would hear me and run off. A few seconds later I heard the rustle again and saw a huge brown flash of fur, but wasn't able to make out what I saw. I grabbed a stick from the ground and started singing louder and walking faster. I never saw or heard anything again, but the experience was enough to nearly scare me into turning around. 😔

I sat at the next fork in the road for about 10 minutes (where I coincidentally had cell service and was frantically texting Paul) until I got lucky and some people came up the trail behind me. These were the first people I saw all day! What timing. I told them about my encounter and they unsympathetically explained it was likely a moose. I waited for them to go up towards Bluebird Lake before I cautious decided to tail them, keeping them in bear-attack yelling earshot. I'm happy I did this for another reason, up ahead the last couple miles of the trail were often covered in thick snow and I was able to follow them up to the lake. Had they not come along I would likely have made it to the snow and then turned around.

My reward at the end of the long hike was Bluebird Lake, one of the prettiest sites I've ever seen; made all the  more rewarding by the 6 mile hike with 3,000 feet of elevation gain and one terrifying bear-moose encounter along the way. Hiking back was all downhill and there were occasionally people along the trail, so it was less intimidating heading back. All-in-all, my 12+ mile hike took about 8 hours, with numerous stops for photos and rest. That day amounted to the most steps and the most vertical incline I've ever had (over 40,000 fitbit steps if you're curious - beating out our day in Stockholm and our Kalalau Trail hike).

The sunrise lighting was amazing

Lots of green - plants taking advantage of the short summer.

At lower elevations the trail was very well maintained - but rocky and rough in patches.

High meadow bursting with flowers - this is where the bear-moose incident occurred...

LOL - I'm super brave 😥

Eventually, the trail gets high enough to be snow-covered and tricky.

Flowery & snowy

This was a bitch to climb...

...but here's the reward! Bluebird Lake!

Luckily I have photographic evidence of my adventure!

Coming down was less eventful, but just as beautiful! This is near Ouzel Lake.

Cute trail scene.

Waterfalls galore!

So many calories burned between the two days of hiking! See the second entry? 1700 calories baby!

I ate two dinners. :) This was just the first one. Notice the water to my left - I was on a patio/bridge.

The next morning my legs felt like jello, so my final day was full of short hikes and lots of time in the car. I rose before 6 AM to make sure to get into the park before it got crowded with the plan of crossing over the Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake on the west side of the park. Trail Ridge Rd is basically a dozen or so miles of alpine tundra, above the tree-line with views down into the rest of the park and across the Colorado Rockies. It's a great drive and it's very scenic.

Nary a tree in sight up on Trail Ridge Rd in the alpine area.

Great vistas heading up/down Trail Ridge Rd.

Mountains - and more mountains in the far back.

Marmot! They only have a couple months to get super fat before hibernation time.

Coming down the western side of Trail Ridge Rd brings you into the Kawuneeche Valley. The Colorado River originates at the north end of the valley, which is lush and verdant. At the south end of the valley is Colorado's largest natural lake, Grand Lake, just outside the park boundary. I discovered that there's a series of underground tunnels through the National Park that bring water from the west side of the mountains to Boulder and Denver #humans #busylittlebeavers. I had lunch here and spent some time walking around the town and to a nearby waterfall. The lake is deep blue and was full of people boating and swimming (seemed cold to me).

Nature trail along the Colorado River at Coyote Valley Trailhead.

So verdant!

Life will find a way...

Grand Lake - the scenery here seemed a bit drier than in the park.

Deep blue Grand Lake.

A Colorado River tributary.

After hanging out on the west side of the park, I still had plenty of time to drive back over Trail Ridge Rd to do a bit more sightseeing on the east side before heading to the Denver airport for my red eye. I spent a bit of time hiking around Moraine Park looking for elk and caught a great sunset after dinner in Boulder. Overall, a successful sight-filled trip to one of my favorite national parks! Now to convince Paul to move out west. 😖

Coming back across the tundra along Ute Trail (short hike from Trail Ridge Rd).

Moraine Park

Explosive sunset over the Boulder Flatirons.