Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Every September, my husband and I venture to Colorado.  We LOVE Colorado for it’s beauty and try to divide our time between the mountains, seeing many of our close friends, but ultimately make the trip to see our favorite band (STS9) play at Red Rocks.  This year we decided to check one off our bucket lists, and camped in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

We entered Rocky Mountain National Park from Estes Park, Colorado.  We paid a fee to come in, then drove about fifteen minutes to Moraine Campground to settle into our campsite.  When we got to our site, we were in awe of the view.  We picked a site on the D loop that faced the mountains.  After arriving, we took a little walk down the trail by our site and went down into a valley with stunning views.  

The next day, we drove to Bear Lake to do some hiking.  The lake was clear and reflected the mountains like glass.  The aspens had just started to change and there were pops of yellows and orange along the mountain sides.

After a walk around the lake, we decided to do a 4.4 mile hike called Flat top mountain to view a glacier.  It started very easy.  We took our time walking slowly up through the tree line and enjoyed overlooks of the lake. 

After the first half hour, things started to get intense.  We had started our hike in layers topped with jackets, and were now down to tanks.  The clouds were now at our level and brought a cool breeze as they would pass by.  

Three hours later, we had finally made it to the top of the mountain- a mountain that we didn’t really expect to be climbing and were greeted by an astonishing view.  To our left was a glacier and to the right a view that left us breathless- or should I say out of breath. 

We took in the view as long as we could, but a storm started to roll through.  The clouds were dark and the temperature started to drastically drop.  We were once warm and sweaty, and suddenly freezing, our fingers felt like ice.

It took us less time to get down the mountain, and thankfully, it had been about five hours since we started our hike and the sun was going to set.  We made it back to our site and were able to start a fire just before it got dark.   We spent three days unbelievable days hiking around in Rocky Mountain National Park.  I would highly recommend making your way there sometime, it is unforgettable.