GOOD 3-DAY ROUTES IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATI ON PARK

“So im going out to visit a friend in CO this august, he will have just moved there so neither of us will know any good trails in RMNP, can any locals or veterans of the park let me know of some good 3 day treks or several smaller ones.”

“Tell us a bit of what you're looking for. How many miles per day? How much elevation? Middle of a week or on the weekend?”

“Welcome to Trail Talk.”

“I went to Timber Lake last summer. Pretty sweet little lake with all right fishing. I think it's around 5 miles. You can hike up and over to Julian Lake the next day. Just be careful, there was an escaped lunatic hiding in the woods the whole weekend.”

“this trip would be over the weekend, a little elevation is fine say 1-2000 feet if its 20 or so miles but nothing really craqzy if its just a few miles, a 30 mile trip would be perfect something a bit more or less would also be cool”

“Its hard to find something with both long distance and little elevation change. Either the Lawn Lake or Lost Lake trails would give you options of about 15-18 miles roundtrip with campsites along the way. However, I'd suggest reservations for any backcountry site, since some fill up in the summer season.

Also, I don't know your hiking skills, but before I moved out here, anything over 5-6 miles in the mountains with overnight gear was a long day for me.

This page has some good introductory information:

http://www.explore-rocky.com/hiking/trailheadmap.html


Marmotpie - quit talking about me, man.
last edited: 5/29/07 8:08:07 AM”

“You have lots of options - one real nice one that's three nights starts on the west side out of Grand Lake and follows the CO river north and then east towards the Divide then loops back south and west.

Or you could trek up Wild Basin and camp close to Ouzel Lake and then Bluebird Lake, or you could go the other way up Wild Basin to Thunder Lake - that's sposed to be real nice.

Long Lake is a pretty good climb, but you could break it up a little. There's also teh Cub Lake Trail on teh North side of the Park that would put you up around the east end of Mummy Mtn.....

feel free to email me - my address is in my profile.

I spend as much time as possible in the park.”

“thanks for all the suggestions im think im gonna look into the trail that starts at grand lake and follows the colorado”

“i think you'll like that - get the Nat Geo map of the park and it'll be an obvious loop. I don't believe that any of the sites you'll want to use are ones that fillup super fast, but you will want to get your reservations just to be sure.

The campsites give you the option if you get to camp early and feel strong to go a little higher to some nice lakes.

I want to do this trip myself later this summer sometime.

On the parks website, you'll find a phone number for the backcountry office.”

“thanks so much for all of your help”