a quick hiking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado

Mar 8

I did three hikes in the park and I look forward to coming back and hike the less populated areas. I just don’t like how crowded the park gets if you don’t start hiking very early (but by doing so you into into cute elk).

Bluebird Lake

The highlights of Bluebird Lake trail are the Calypso cascades, Ouzel falls, and the alpine lake itself.

The trail is not reached within the main entrance to the park, you have to drive southeast. The first nice feature your reach are these nice cascades. I did not have an ND filter on my camera to do the smooth water effect, but there were plenty spaces to rest the camera and the area is in shadows. The pic came out pretty good, i guess.

Then, the Calypso cascades ………

And Ouzel Falls ……..

I found this burnt tree bark fascinating.

I ran into a couple of critters, a faun that was not afraid of me and a gigantic moose, who never took his eye off its surroundings.

and it was getting cloudy, just in time for when I arrived at the lake.

Mount Ida

The hike to Mount Ida took place during very cloudy skies and lots of fog. Took some route finding effort when I got to a talon field since I could not see 50 yards in front of me. So there are no pics from the top.

I did manage to see some elk on top of a hill and a couple of them jousting.

I got a peak of what would have been a great view when the clouds opened briefly:

On the way back the sun came out and you can see how pretty it would have been without the fog.

Flattop Mountain

Due to the altitude this was an exhausting hike (you can see Tyndall Glacier below). I had to stop many times to catch my breath. This hike can take you to the top of Hallet Peak (I just didn’t have the strength) and the hike can be extended to overlook Andrews Glacier …. people have actually skied down the glacier to the valley, but people have also died doing that.