26-April-2024. Rocky Mountain National Park

After seeing a winter storm watch for Rocky Mountain National Park last night I was not hopeful that I would be able to get here today … but it turned out to be a great day for a national park hike!

It’s only about an hour drive from where I’m staying in Boulder to RMNP. I was just about there when I saw what looked like 3 elk hanging out near a small pond off the side of the road. Decided to make a little detour to check it out and sure enough they were just chilling by the lake. Ah Colorado eildlife. 😁

I continued on and was delighted to find that it was still a nice day up at elevation in the park. I could see the snow squalls in the distance and at elevation, but where I started my hike was beautiful. The hike I selected was Chasm Falls, which starts on a paved road (closed to vehicles) and then turns into a narrow dirt road as you get to higher elevation territory. It was a nice 5-mile hike and the waterfall was picturesque. Ranged from sun and wind to an occasional snow/sleet squall, but the squalls were short-lived and didn’t get me very wet. I also played around taking some pictures of textures and colors at the end of the hike - so nice to slow down and enjoy nature!

When I got back down to the parking lot I realized that there was a short trail to an alluvial fan so I headed over there -in the 1980s there was a dam break up above which released hundreds of acre-feet of water and carried sand, rocks and boulders down into the valley. There is a pretty waterfall that cascades over the rocks and it’s basically a huge debris field of rocks at the base. Must’ve been a scary day when they all came tumbling down!

I then drove to a scenic overlook that was at about 10,000 feet and got caught in a another snow squall - windy and chilly up there but I was prepared with hat and gloves. I just love our National Parks!