Today we had reservations for a timed entry into Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) between 9 and 11AM. They started requiring timed entry reservations a couple of years ago due to overcrowding in the park. The passes cost $2 each. They open the reservations up a month ahead for the next month. There are two different entry passes, one that is a general park entry and one that is the park and the Bear Lake Road area (where most of the better hiking trails are located). Our pass for today was just a general park entry. We drove the Trail Ridge Road (US34) from the Bever Meadows Entrance all the way across to the Grand Lake Entrance which took us through the high alpine area of the park (over 11,000 feet in altitude) and over the continental divide. Our last time in RMNP was in May 2019 and Trail Ridge Road was closed since they had not been able to clear the snow off the road yet. We stopped and did two short hikes along the road. The first at Toll Memorial Trail(1.1 miles, 150ft elevation gain). The second was Alpine Ridge Trail (0.82 miles, 151 feet of elevation gain, 229 calories burned) which starts at the Alpine Visitor Center. We definitely felt the 11,900+ foot altitude (ie lack of oxygen)! But the views were worth it! We stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center to do some shopping and get a park passport stamp. We saw a large elk herd not too far from the road in the upper Tundra Areas, but there was no place to pull over to get good pictures. We had nice weather in the morning with temps in the upper 40s, but storms moved in in the early afternoon and we got rain and sleet as we were heading toward lower altitudes. We spent about 6 hours on the drive and loved it.
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| Elk Herd |
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