Our Dirty Little Secret
Confession time: We’ve lived less than an hour from Rocky Mountain National Park for about eight years now, and we’ve never set foot inside the park as a family. Or even as individuals, other than Mike, maybe?
There’s no good reason for this, really. We’ve been immediately next to the park plenty of times. We’ve explored Estes Park. We’ve stayed overnight at the YMCA campgrounds. One time we even drove up to the ranger station but decided to turn around because we only had an hour to spend there, and the $25 entry fee seemed a little silly.
I guess it’s a little like residents of most tourist towns around the world. You/we always think, “We can go anytime, so no rush. We’ll go there sometime soon.” And you just say that on repeat until you die.
But anyway, “sometime soon” finally happened for us yesterday. Mike’s been itching for more mountain time to escape the heat of the lowlands. (Spoiler: we didn’t hit a part of the park that was any higher than our house. Oops.) One of our friends mentioned this particular hike she did there with her kids that sounded the right mix of not-too-crowded/not-too-long-or-short/less-than-an-hour-away. And as another friend optimistically pointed out, we “get” to stay in Colorado rather than travel the world right now (sigh) so what better way to spend a day?
Calypso Cascade
Because of the pandemic, you currently have to reserve a spot in the park ahead of time, so they can keep the number of visitors down for social distancing. This is kinda great, to be honest, because another reason I hadn’t gone to RMNP before was that I always heard how crowded it was. Yay, COVID? It was easy to reserve a spot online, just a few days before.
I packed up some food for the drive and hike, and off we went. It was a beautiful drive with basically zero traffic. Less than an hour door to door, and the hike itself was nice too. (We did Wild Basin, in case you’re curious.) I’d say about 1/3-1/2 of people wore masks when they passed us. We stopped at Calypso Cascades and enjoyed the view and cool water. Laying on a big log and looking up at the trees while listening to the waterfall was my favorite part, no doubt. It was gorgeous and peaceful, and the kids didn’t even hate it. That’s high praise. If you’ve ever taken your kids on a hike, you almost definitely know that, though.
Here’s my other dirty little secret, though. While it was beautiful and nice and I’m glad we went, it also made me realize how beautiful our whole state is. I mean, I realize we were in a tiny part of a tiny corner of a huge park, so it’s still worth a visit - or many. But even if you don’t get the chance or don’t want to spend the entry fee money, there’s a whole lotta Colorado to see that’s equally amazing. Our optimistic friend is right. If we have to be stuck somewhere, I’m glad it’s here.
P.S. Totally worth the trip to RMNP just to hang out with the not-very-shy chipmunks. This little lady hung out with us for a while, and we watched her stuff her Chunky Chipmunky face with an entire crabapple. Pure joy for all of us but especially for her.
