Driving through Rocky Mountain National Park is an exercise in self-control. Each curve reveals a new scenic overlook, or trailhead, or stunning opportunity to get out, take a picture and try to force your mind to accept what it’s seeing: towering peaks covered in snow but surrounded by a technicolor array of wildflowers. Moose, elk and deer peering at you through the woods, and air so crisp and thin you feel alive but, perhaps, also light-headed – and all at the same time.
Rocky Mountain National Park is Epic
The Park, and each of its epic, unyielding peaks, is grounded majestically between the two idyllic mountain towns of Estes Park and Grand Lake, who’s almost fairy-tail shops and outdoor spaces prepare you for your journey in or out of the Park itself. But, once you manage to extricate yourself from the restaurants, art galleries and taffy shops, you can begin the legendary drive into Rocky Mountain National Park, where the road you drive upon will rise from almost 8,000 feet at the entrance, to over 12,000 feet at its precipice.
Above the Park, along a curving invisible line, lies the Continental Divide, which divides the falling rivers and streams on one side of the line towards the Pacific Ocean, and the other to the Atlantic. And all along the way, there is an unbelievable variety of geography and nature to be found.
Within its 265,000 acres, the Park protects hundreds of miles of streams, trails and lakes, lovingly maintained by the Park Service. There are a staggering sixty mountain peaks, each over 12,000 feet, valleys filled with wildflowers, a glacier, winding rivers punctuated with beaver dams, and areas of Mountain tundra carved out of speckled multi-colored stone and too high for most vegetation to grow.
A Day Trip — Or a Lifetime Obsession?
All of the Park can almost certainly not be seen in one day; In fact, people I met mentioned “The Bug”, a local expression used to explain why people spend years navigating the Park in hopes of one day saying, “I did it. I saw it all.”
Several of the higher roads in the Park are closed in winter, so, as you can imagine, it is especially in Summer, where the small towns that book-end the entrances, are over-run with tourists. When I visited in June of 2018, the congregation of people at the cross-walks reminded me of Times Square, except in New York, there was no crossing guard, shouting, “Go, go, go,” when the pedestrian light first turned green, then, with ten seconds left on the clock, began shouting, “Clear the road! Clear the road!” The difference in population between Winter and Summer is staggering.
Rocky Mountain National Park has six visitor centers and tons of resources to help you choose your route. If driving to the top is your goal, and you can get past the urge to keep stopping along the way like I did,
you may make it to the top of the Park via a winding two-lane highway called Trail Ridge Road, the highest continuously paved road in the United States. The full drive through the Park is only over 40 miles, and Trail Ridge Road comprises only about seven of that, but the road is riddled with sharp switchbacks, both on the journey up, then down again, providing epic views of the scenery below.
When you reach the summit of the drive, you can step out into the high winds that frequent that elevation and take in the whole world – at least that’s how it seemed to me. At the precipice of the Trail Ridge there is also a shiny, new visitor center where you can go in to get a warm beverage, or a bite to eat and see some information about the Park below.
Visiting Rocky Mountain National Park
If you want to spend some time in the Park, there are lots of places to stay in each of the adjoining towns. Many people choose to stay at nearby hotels, like the famous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, then drive in and out of the park each day. There are also several RV campgrounds in the surrounding towns, but don’t try to stealth camp in the town of Estes Park itself; staying overnight in your car is prohibited and strictly enforced. Rocky Mountain National Park is also surrounded by 253,000 acres of U.S. Forest Land, so doing some dispersed camping in the Forest and driving into the Park is also certainly doable.
If you are looking for an easier option to visit the different lakes and trailheads, there is a free shuttle that drives up into the park from the Visitor Center in Estes Park. That shuttle will take you to a free Park-n-Ride, inside the Park itself, from which shuttles leave frequently and take visitors to many of the most popular sites.
There are five campgrounds within the park itself. Here’s a link to help you find the right one for you.
Only the final campground one or two campgrounds (call to see if the Longs Peak Campground is taking reservations) are non-reservation campground, so make your reservations almost a year in advance if you want to secure a spot. 
If you are a backcountry or wildcamper, you can get a permit to leave your car in the Park from the Wilderness Office.
As for me, I plan to come back to the wonderous place many, many times. I’ve gotten that Rocky Mountain National Park bug—I want to see it all.
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Be Happy. Create More. Set Yourself Free .
Robin
CreativityRV
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