Colorado Rocky Mountain National Park Estes Park Area Part 1

My first trip to Colorado and it was fantastic that I decided to make this blog post part 1. Part 2 will cover scenes from the Ute Trail up in the Alpine area. Estes Park is a pretty city where you can find abundant lodging but in the summer demand exceeds supply. This part of the Rocky Mountains are spectacular. We spent all of our vacation time exploring the area around Estes Park where there are several entrances to the park, the Fall River, Alpine, and Beaver Meadows entrances from which you can access countless trails. The Alpine entrance is accessed via the Trail Ridge Road or the Old Fall River Rd. The types of trails found here can be categorized by lake trails, meadow trails, forest trails, and alpine trails.

The most popular trails among visitors is the Bear Lake Area accessed via the Beaver Meadows entrance, which in the summer is so busy that parking is impossible. So there are shuttles available to take hikers to the different trails. We chose to wait to after 3 PM when the crowds thin out and parking opens up. Daylight is longer in the summer so no worries there.

And you have to take a drive along the Old Fall River Road which just re-opened this July. It is a 9-mile narrow, winding, one-way only, dirt road that leads to the Alpine Visitor Center which is at 11,796 feet. This road was built in the 1920's and was the only road back then for motor tours of the Rocky Mountains. Long before the road was built, American Indians traveled this route to cross the Continental Divide.

The following three photos were taken at an area in a park off of Fall River Road and Horsehorse Park called Alluvial Fan. These boulders are the result of a the Lawn Lake flood in Rocky Mountain National Park in 1982. The flood waters brought down sediment and giant boulders forming a triangle-shaped deposit referred to as an Alluvial Fan. You can walk among the boulders or you can take the trail to Lawn Lake. We hiked this trail but only up to the river gorge.

Some lake trail scenes from the Bear Lakes area:

Beautiful meadows scenes from the Beaver Meadows area:

Horseshoe Park became the melting basin of the "Fall River Glacier", which about 15,000 years ago, was this valley's most recent glacier. A valley glacier has a distinctive U-shape, whereas a river valley is a V-shape.

Views along the Old Fall River road that takes you to the Alpine Visitor Center at 11,796 feet (Elevation for Estes Park is about 7800 feet). Big-horn sheep can be seen on this road.

Finally at the Alpine Visitor Center. It is much cooler here, we got an temperature reading of 46F. Storms are common here in the afternoon. Visitors are encouraged to visit in the morning when threatening storms are less likely. Lightening is a concern this high up, since you are out in the open, exposed, and become a lightening rod. Make sure to bring a poncho. In one of the photos shows a glacier cirque. Several times during the last two million years, snow hundreds of fee deep accumulated here. The tremendous weight of the compacted snow and ice caused the mass to move slowly downhill thereby giving birth to a glacier.

There is a trail adjacent to the Alpine Visitor Center. Just a short walk to 12,005 feet. Really, really windy! There is another trail called the Ute Trail which is pretty awesome and my favorite, but I will save these photos for another blog post.

Next, was a short drive not that far from the Alpine Visitor Center to Milner Pass or the Continenetal Divide. You can take the Milner Pass trail all the way up to the Alpine visitor Center which turns out to be the same trail as the Ute trail or start the trail from the Visitor center to Milner pass. Hike this trail both ways or have someone drop you off at one end and just hike the trail one way. Total round trip miles about 8.2 miles. It is an uphill all the way to the Alpine Visitor Center so we just went a little bit up the trail. Lake Poudre is here so if you don't feel like hiking you can hang out and enjoy this pretty lake scene.

Just south of the Continenel Divide is a picnic area called Lake Irene. This is a pretty little lake with a trail that leads to an overlook and another trail that according to the trail sign leads to the Ute trail. So we hiked this trail for hours and ended up nowhere. I thought somehow we would hook up to the the trail at the Milner pass but I guess not. Anyways, it is a really beautiful area.

Well, this ends Part 1 of our Colorado trip. My next blog post will show scenes from the Ute trail.