PART ONE

I had it on my bucket list to go hiking somewhere this winter where I could snowshoe. Most of my camping and hiking trips are during warm weather and I wanted to try out the cold and snow for once!

I decided on Colorado because I wanted to explore Rocky Mountain National Park some more. I have visited the park twice before, but both times were very brief and I didn’t get to explore very much. I was really hopeful there would be a lot of snow and my dreams came true when right before I was supposed to leave they got a massive record-breaking snowstorm. These dreams were too good to be true because the snow storm kept me from making it there due to the interstate closing down and most people being snowed in unable to go anywhere. The rental cabin I was staying at was in a remote area up in the woods and the road wasn’t even accessible for a few days. I had to postpone my trip until a later date, but luckily there was still some snow there when I did make it (not the four feet I was hoping to enjoy that they had received earlier but still a good amount in the higher elevations of the park).

We road tripped due to the fact that I brought Nika with and ran into a little more bad luck with 60-70 mph wind gusts on the interstate which ripped my tonneau cover off the track. 

Once we made it there though everything was smooth sailing! The cabin I was staying in was absolutely amazing up in the mountains in Drake. Rocky Mountain National Park in the winter covered in a blanket of snow was so beautiful! A good portion of the park and the main Trail Ridge road were closed for winter season, but the parts we could access were awesome.

Due to mostly wanting to snowshoe the trails became a little more limited as only a few of them still had snow up in the higher elevations. I snowshoed the Bear Lake and Dream Lake trails. Once you get to the top at Dream Lake it was freezing but totally worth the views! 

We explored what we could of Trail Ridge road stopping at some overlooks and visited Estes Park for local beer and ice cream. My cabin hosts were so nice and invited me for dinner, gave me local beer, and let me meet their baby chicks! In the mornings, the cabin had a stellar view of Longs Peak.

Overall it was an amazing trip I got to share with one of my best buds and sidekicks Nika! 

 

PART TWO

I got to visit Rocky Mountain national park for a second time because Brady’s cousin was getting married in the area. Since the guys had a golf day planned, naturally I decided to head somewhere to hike. This time I was there during fall instead of winter, and although the colors weren’t quite popping yet, I still got to visit some places I had previously visited while also adding some new places. 

Since the park now has timed entry, I had the time slot of 6 am, so I thought I might as well catch sunrise in the park if I was going to be up early anyways! It was over an hour drive from where we were staying in a Loveland, so I had a 4 am wake up call.

I started my day at Bear Lake for sunrise and then hiked up to Dream Lake to see what it looked like not covered in blanket of snow like last time. I read by the lake for a bit before hiking next to Alberta Falls which I hadn’t see before. 

Lastly I enjoyed a sour beer I had brought from our visit to New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins on our way through from Denver.  We also got to hit up the original Odell Brewing. After spending the day at the park, I headed back for wedding festivities with Brady’s family.