Last month a friend came to visit for the weekend and we decided we should explore those big pointy things with white stuff on the top… (Rocky Mountain National Park)

I had a national park pass from a trip to the Grand Canyon a couple months ago so i got in for “free”.

Keep a look out – they had a few “free entry” weekends throughout the summer – that’s cool!

We headed in through the entrance by Estes Park.  I wanted to make sure that my friend could handle the larger altitude change – she was from sea level, so we had our bag lunch by one of the water falls.

After that, we headed down toward Bear Lake for some not too strenous hiking! Obviously the easy hikes and easily accessible areas will be the most populated. Rocky Mt NP has created a huge parking lot and a shuttle system to get you around the heavily traveled areas.

I must say I am very impressed with ease of transit, the limited wait times for the buses, and the ability to get away from the crowds! We did the mile-ish hike to Alberta Falls

And then the trail around Bear Lake. It was a beautiful walk/hike.

It’s a neat place to bring visitors or just head in yourself!

It is right there – under 2 hours from Denver… Seriously – go take a look!

I can’t wait to get up there and find some other hikes and enjoy more of what Colorado has to offer!

We had a busy two days of hiking this weekend.  On Saturday, we hiked the Meridian Trail.  This was a beautiful 3.3 hike (doubled on the return trip) and there was not another person in sight until we returned to the trailhead.  The elevation gain of 1,600 feet was good preparation for next weekend, when we plan to hike our first “fourteener” – Grays and Torreys.  As with everywhere we have been this summer, it was green, green, green.  We passed through two beautiful aspen groves with rich green clearings just below us.  Near the top, we were able to see the rock face of the next mountain which was just gorgeous.  The trip down the hill took almost an hour less time than the trip up.

Today, we went with Reynolds Park, much more familiar stomping grounds for us.  We did all the trails on the mountain side of the park including both Eagle’s View and Raven’s Roost.  This hike also included a lot of elevation gain, but not quite as much as the Meridian Trail.  There were lots of cars in the parking lot, but we didn’t pass a single person until we made it to the top of Eagle’s View.

All in all, a great weekend.  But my feet hurt….