September 2-5, 2022 —
Rocky Mountain National Park is on the top of many people’s national park to-do list. Why wouldn’t it be? Its massive pine forests, impressive mountain peaks, huge wildlife population, plentiful alpine lakes, and unique alpine tundra ecosystem make it a staple of the National Park System. Unsurprisingly, Rocky Mountain is one of the most visited national parks.
Rocky Mountain National Park managed to evade my presence for far too long. In 2021, Maria and I attempted to visit several national parks in Colorado. Our planned trip included Rocky Mountain, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and Great Sand Dunes. However, wildfire smoke from California derailed our plans. This forced us down south to White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, Big Bend, and Hot Springs. We had an amazing trip, but I wanted desperately to return to Colorado.
Only a few months after Maria’s and my overturned trip, my best friend (and best man) Shane moved to Denver. Of course, this prompted me to plan another visit to Colorado, which ultimately fell in late 2022. I budgeted a week to see the best of Denver and the surrounding areas while working intermittently and remotely. Our itinerary during my stay was loose, but one thing was certain: we would explore the heck out of RMNP. Climbing, hiking, camping, and more was on the agenda. I was ready.
Plan your trip to Rocky Mountain National Park
Table of Contents
- Day 1: Longs Peak
- Day 2: Touring the Alpine Tundra
- Day 3: Bouldering in Chaos Canyon
- Day 4: Hiking Our Hearts Out
Back in Colorado
My first day in Colorado was fairly uneventful. I spent the morning working from Shane’s apartment and went on a run to tour Denver. Around lunchtime, we drove to Boulder and finished the workday in a coffee shop on Pearl Street. During our breaks, we planned out a rough itinerary for our visit to RMNP. Most of the schedule was unstructured, but we agreed to summit Longs Peak on our first day. The intense, 15-mile hike with significant scrambling and elevation gain near the summit sounded like an absolute delight. Longs Peak seemed like a worthy adversary in my resolution to summit a fourteener, and Shane and I were intending to make that resolution a reality.
After work, we celebrated the start of our long weekend by soloing the second Flatiron – something that Shane did regularly and something I had done during my last visit to the state in 2019. That – coupled with my run earlier in the day – helped acclimate my body to Colorado’s elevation.
On the way back to Denver, we prepared for Rocky Mountain National Park with a grocery run. We ate pizza and drank beer at Shane’s place while watching Rick and Morty and playing Doom: Eternal, finally getting to bed a little after 9:30 PM. While that may sound like a reasonable time to fall asleep, it was much later than it should have been given our plan the next day…
Day 1: Longs Peak
At 1:15 AM, my alarm sounded loudly. I had mustered a mere 3 hours of sleep, and my body was unhappy with my decision to wake up. I prodded Shane out of bed, and we quickly grabbed our belongings and walked to his car. Denver’s streets saw few cars and we only spotted a couple of people walking around. The small number of people awake at this time of night were mostly people returning home from a late night at the bars.
By 1:35 AM, we were on the road to Rocky Mountain National Park. I could go into greater detail about our adventure to Longs’ summit, but why do that when I could just share the story in video form?
The Keyhole Route
Longs Peak ranks as one of my favorite hikes I have ever completed. After starting our hike at 3:15 AM, Shane and I reached the base of the famous Keyhole Route at 7 AM. While more strenuous than your average hike – and technically a Class 3 scramble – the Keyhole Route does not require technical climbing skills. The route consists of five distinct sections that lead to the peak’s summit. The first is a scramble up the Boulder Field to the Keyhole, a unique rock formation for which the route is named. From the Keyhole, it takes 1.5 miles of hiking and 1,500 feet of elevation gain to reach the summit. Throughout most of the route, hikers must scramble up and down rocks using all four limbs.
Once passing through the Keyhole, hikers must traverse the Ledges: an easy traverse across well-placed boulders on the mountain’s west face. After the Ledges, the route ascends the Trough: a grueling and steep scramble up a deep gulley. Beyond the Trough lies the Narrows: an aptly named traverse along a narrow path with a large drop-off only a few feet away. After the Narrows comes the fun, steep, and more technical Homestretch. The Homestretch guides hikers to the summit, which offers expansive and sweeping views of Colorado.
We completed the Keyhole Route in about 80 minutes, reaching the summit shortly before 8:30 AM. The views up top were spectacular. In the distance, I spotted Denver, Boulder, Mount Evans, Pikes Peak, and even Wyoming to the north, along with hundreds of mountains. The view rivaled some of the best vistas I’d seen in America’s national parks. Shane and I spent about 45 minutes enjoying the summit, talking with strangers, and savoring a celebratory shot of bourbon.
We began our return from Longs just before 9:15 AM, taking about an hour to reach the Keyhole again. On the way down, we passed many hikers that we had overtaken on the way up. It seemed we had been one of the first groups to reach the summit. While I felt the elevation, I managed to keep up with Shane and maintain a decent pace.
PIKAS!
After taking a break near the Keyhole and eating lunch, we continued our descent from Longs Peak. While navigating the Boulder Field, I heard the “eeks!” of pikas ringing around the rocks. The tiny and adorable rodents are abundant at higher elevations, and I wanted badly to get a photo of one. After multiple failed attempts, I managed to corner one in a cluster of rocks. The pika held still long enough for me to photograph him, satisfying one of my objectives for our trip.
Chasm Lake
After exiting the Boulder Field, we took a detour to Chasm Lake. The scenic and colorful lake sits at the base of “the Diamond,” a massive rock wall leading to Longs Peak’s summit. The lake is the end of one of the park’s most popular hikes, so it made sense to take the ~1.5-mile detour to see it.
When we reached the trail split for the lake at noon, clouds had begun to block out the sun. Surprise afternoon thunderstorms are a common occurrence during summers in Colorado. This leads to the rule of thumb tree line by noon. For hikers, this means returning to the safety of trees in preparation for the inevitability of afternoon thunderstorms in the mountain. While I knew of this rule of thumb, the presence of other hikers at the trail split gave me a false sense of security. So, we proceeded with our detour to Chasm Lake, accepting the risk of storms.
The detour was 100% worth the extra miles and elevation gain. Chasm Lake was gorgeous, and the Diamond of Longs Peak looked impressive and intimidating from below. Shane and I briefly dunked ourselves into the lake while we rested, to wash the sweat and grime of the morning from our bodies. The water was refreshing and very cold.
Caught in a Storm
As we put our clothes back on and packed our gear, a dark cloud appeared to the north. As we hiked back to the trail split, the cloud grew larger and rain shafts began appearing. Just before we reached the trail split – at 2 PM – lightning started striking the ground and thunder began to rage.
Uh oh.
The tree line was still 1-2 miles from our position, and the storm was moving fast. We were excellent candidates for lightning rods. Memories of last year’s epic on Matthes Crest in Yosemite clouded my thoughts. Thankfully, we weren’t stuck on a rock with loads of metal gear hanging from our waist this time. Regardless, I didn’t want to dilly dally. Shane and I agreed to start running, so we took off on a mad dash down the trail.
Unfortunately, we weren’t fast enough.
The storm overtook our position in a matter of minutes. Rain and hail began falling from the sky. Before long, we were soaked in frigid water as hail continued to pelt us. Thunder continued to reign overhead, but we didn’t stop to look if or where lightning was striking.
The rain stopped just as quickly as it began. Precipitation started petering out once we reached the tree line, prompting us to slow our run to a walk. A few minutes later, the rain stopped, and the sun reappeared. I looked to the south – where the storm had moved – to find a growing thunderstorm that rumbled ferociously in the distance. We were safe, but our clothes were soaked through with cold water. Despite our annoyance with being wet, we realized that it could have been much worse.
To Estes Park
After the storm, our return to the car was uneventful. We trekked through the forest that we had navigated in the early morning’s darkness, making conversation with several strangers along the way. Once reaching the car at 3 PM, we drove to Estes Park – the touristy town just outside the national park – for a well-deserved pizza and beer.
Throughout the evening, 3 hours of sleep and 16.5 miles of hiking slowly caught up with me. I developed a splitting headache as Shane and I ate dinner. As the headache worsened, we bought groceries and returned to the national park to set up camp at Moraine Park Campground. To counter our exhaustion, we indulged in a chill evening at our campsite. We sat on a hill near our tent and watched Longs Peak change colors as the sun set. Deer roamed the campground in search of fresh vegetation as we drank beer and observed our fellow campers. It was an excellent way to end the day.
We entered our sleeping bags around 9 PM and passed out almost immediately. It had been an incredible – and exhausting – day in Rocky Mountain National Park.