Rocky Mountain National Park - Summer 2022
The main problem with National Parks these days is that there are more and more people but it’s not like you can make more of the parks. There is only one Yosemite Valley or Grand Canyon for people to visit.
The Rocky Mountains face the same challenge as you have to make reservations for entry and the parking lots are expectedly jammed with cars.
The park itself is pretty accessible. It was only an hour drive or so from where we were staying outside Boulder.
This elk greeted us along the road after we entered the park. Since the elk are protected inside the park, there are now so many that they need to fence off some of the park otherwise their feeding is starting to damage some of the ecosystem.
The park is as you would expect as you get your purple mountains majesties. Maybe not purple but you know what I mean.
We only car toured since we brought the pup along for the ride.
Dogs only allowed in the parking lots
(We are lucky he’s ok with being in the car)
The highlight from the car was this Old Fall River Road.
You know it’s safe but sometimes it seems very sketchy as you make that sharp turn with no railing next to a cliff.
At the end of the drive, you get to the Alpine Visitor Center which is the highest visitor facility in the National Park system. From the visitor center, on one side you can see an expansive valley (with glacier that is no longer there) with elk feeding in the distance.
On the other side you can take a short hike up the Alpine Ridge Trail which gets you to this overlook at 12,005 ft.
You run into some marmots here and there at the higher elevations
Unfortunately, when you look at some of the mountainsides, you can see the effects of global warming as the you can see entire sections of the forests that have turned brown and have died due to bark beetle infestations, heat and drought.
We also did not have time to drive to the other side of the park where the headwaters of the Colorado are located.
Estes Park, CO
On the way out we stopped in Estes Park for lunch. This tourist town has a fun street to stroll through while looking through the shops and eateries.
On the outskirts of town, the Stanley hotel gets a lot of visits because it was the hotel for the movie “The Shining” . We didn’t go in but the pictures of the whiskey bar looked pretty nice. You had to pay to park but the guy at the gate was nice enough to let us in to take a quick photo.
When we went into downtown Estes Park, due to the town being old, the bars and restaurants were not really built with patios so there were actually not a lot of places that were convenient for dining with your dog. We had to go searching a bit to find some outdoor dining with shade for our dog on a hot day.
Molly B (Estes Park)
This place off the main drag had a patio with some shade so it made for a great stop for us. Super dog friendly outside - they gave a full sized Milk Bone for the dog!
I wasn’t expecting much from this casual roadside joint in an older building but the food was actually quite good. Very satisfying grub and not just because we were starving coming out of a long drive in the park.
Another plus was that this place caused me to google who Molly B was so I also got to learn something that day.
Ravens Roast (Estes Park)
After lunch we walked around town and found this place. Some of the positives of this little gem are:
1) Dog friendly! Like “Come on in and hang out and we have dog treats” friendly!
2) Coffee was excellent. They serve a brand of coffee called Dazbog out of Fort Collins, CO that is super tasty. This espresso above is made from their “White Nights Espresso” beans. The coffee was rich and nutty without the sour taste that a lot boutique places serve. You can also get Dazbog at the grocery stores in Colorado.