The magnificent Rockies – Gem Lake Trail
We spent the next three nights around the magnificent Rocky Mountain State Park. We stayed our first night in the area using our “Boondockers Welcome” membership with a retired couple in the backcountry who let us stay for a night at their secluded ranch. We headed out early and made our way to Estes Park, CO where we stayed at our first paid camping ground. It was not worth the $80/night but offered solid internet for school and work and fast access to the Rocky’s National Park. We purchased a pass to enter the Rocky Mountain National Park during the 2-4 pm window. We arrived at the park around 3.30 pm but no one checked us in, in the end. We decided to go for the Gem Lake Trail, after checking for trail suggestions on All Trails. Fantastic views and awesome hike with a 1000’ elevation gain to almost 9000’. It took us about 3 hours with a break at the lake to do the 3.6 miles round trip. Highly recommended hike and we only passed about 10 other hikers on the round trip.
The Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the parks that is now regulating visitor numbers by only admitting visitors with a pre-reserved pass. A few things to know:
– passes need to be reserved on the NPS.org site and sell out early. We didn’t realize this but got lucky. When we check back later in the day – one pass was still available (probably someone canceled theirs) and we snatched it up.
– passes will give you a 2 hour window to access the park. Once you accessed the park, you can leave and return the same day. Try to catch an early access window to max your day access.
– if you are out of luck and all passes are gone, there is still good news: you may access the park before 6 am and after 5 pm each day, without a pass.
– make sure you validate all of this on the NPS.org site. Things change all the time 😊
