Rocky Mountain National Park Day 2

On our second day of our adventure we decided to bypass our 11:00 AM timed entry and go in a little earlier before timed entries are required. Our goal for the day was to find the ever elusive moose. All of our information told us our best chances of spotting moose would be on the west side of the park in the Kawuneeche Valley. We hopped on the Trail Ridge Road and began our ascent towards the Alpine Visitor Center. As we drove higher in elevation, there were lots of opportunities to pull off and get great pictures of the views of The Rockies from the top of the mountains.

At the Forest Canyon overlook it was at 38° in the middle of June at 11,740 feet in altitude and super windy. We highly recommend layering up and bringing your warm hats, long pants and sweatshirts as you head toward the Alpine section of the park. We ran into a number of people that were not prepared for the beautiful blue sky day to be so cold and windy.

We continued upward to 12,180 foot elevation, back down slightly and made a stop at the Alpine visitor center. We definitely recommend that you pop in to see some of the exhibits and grab your souvenir. There is also a café if you’re needing a snack.

Over the past few months of traveling, we have increasingly become used to some higher altitudes. If you are flying in from a low altitude area be sure to do you do diligence on altitude sickness and take whatever precautions you feel might be necessary. To put it in persepctive, this is approximately 2.3 miles above sea level!

As you continue on you will come to Milner Pass where you should be sure to check out the continental divide marker which divides the point of water drainage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The Poudre Lake is at this stop and Jonathan decided to throw his fishing line in the water.

Our next pull off was Lake Irene. This is a very pretty spot to stop and have some lunch at the picnic tables or take a quick stroll along the lake. Jonathan threw his line in again to try and catch some trout.

After eating our packed lunch, we continued down the road towards the west end of the park on our hunt for moose. Jonathan thought he saw one so we pulled over next to the winding Colorado river in the Kawuneeche Valley. Unfortunately we did not see a moose but we did run into a bunch of fishermen who confirmed that there are moose in the area. They recommended to come back to the valley around evening or dusk. Jonathan, of course, took the opportnity to throw his line into the Colorado River.

Continuing on with our day we drove through the burn section of the park. The trails in this section are currently closed however you can drive through to the town of Grand Lake. Outside of the main entrance to the park there are still some National Park trails. We decided to hike the 1/3 of a mile up to Adams Falls. These falls are a dramatic 55 foot drop with sharp turns through a canyon. We highly recommend this failry easy hike.

Grand Lake is the closest town to the west entrance of the park. This town offers plenty of dining and lodging opportunities. There is also the town of Granby another 25 minutes down the road. We stopped at Point Park where the 2 lake, Grand Lake and Shadow Mountain Lake, meet. We strolled through the park and Jonathan fished the lake. From there we continued to the dam by Green Ridge Campground where the lakes deposit into the Colorado River. Jonathan had a mighty battle with a fish at the dam but the fish ultimately broke his 30# line and swam away.

By this point it was late afternoon and we decided we needed some food before heading back through the park towards our campsite in Estes Park. We asked in town and were sent to the Sagebrush BBQ and Grill. We were thiking we would get a quick bite to go but as fate would have it we got involved in conversation with 3 amazing PIP's. A PIP is a Previously Important Person. In other words, a retiree! They were so fun! We enjoyed our dinner, and Doc, a retired military doctor, even picked up our tab! Most importantly, they gave us their secret spots for locating moose! We followed their directions and sure enough, we found 3 moose immediately! Glorious!

By then it was evening and time to head back over the mountains. We stopped and hiked a little bit at the Coyote Valley Trail which is a beautiful walk along the river with the valley.

As we drove back over the mountains we were searching for the perfect sunset and instead ran across the perfect up close moose! This beautiful guy was hanging out between Beaver Pond and the Deer Ridge Junction Trailhead. Immediately after turning towards Sheep Lakes, we saw a beautiful elk and a little further down the road we saw some deer. In the evening around 8 o’clock seems to be a great time to search for these amazing animals.

We are still on the lookout for more big horn sheep, bears and Jonathan wants to see a porcupine. But our day of Alpine views, searching for moose and fishing was a success!