I was on here a couple of months ago asking about a trip to Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Arches National Parks and was very appreciative of all the tips everyone provided. I was originally planning on typing this all up in one sitting, but that'll never happen, so I'll be splitting it up into smaller portions. Hope y'all enjoy.
My wife, 4-year-old daughter, and I had the opportunity to spend 9 days visiting a few national parks. We had planned to hit Arches, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone National Parks. However, our trip to Arches would be over Memorial Day weekend we didn't have any reservations (and any campsites were fully booked), the main campsite in the park was closed, construction was ongoing across the main park road, and Memorial Day weekend is the busiest time of the year at Arches. We scrapped that park and decided to head to Rocky Mountain National Park instead. I finally found some time and start writing up a trip report. First up, Rocky Mountain National Park (May 25-27)
Day 1: Sprague Lake and setting up camp
We booked a site at Moraine Campground and since it was the first day the campground was open, it wasn't too crowded the first night. The second night was a bit more crowded since it was a Friday, but still not too busy at our end of the campground. I read a review on trip advisor for a specific site at this campground that had nice views and access to the meadow below, so we reserved that one. Plus, it was on the loop that didn't allow generators and that was a plus for what we were looking for. Unfortunately, this site was one of the lower sitting sites and there had been quite a bit of rain recently, which led to a bit of a water issue. After a bit of digging with our daughter's shovels and a metal bowl, we had a nice system to get the standing water flowing away from the site. The water flowed steadily through those little trenches the entire time we were there. .
We had gone to the visitor center earlier in the day and talked to him about all the trail conditions and what would be good for a 4-year-old. A few of our initial trail options were still treacherous, but he gave us a few suggestions as to where to go. Since it was already later in the day by this point, we decided to start with Sprague Lake. It was close to the campground and an easy path to walk around for our daughter. For those of you with kids, I'd highly recommend a nice pair of waterproof hiking shoes (our daughter has Keen's) if they are anything like ours. She will seek out any and all puddles.
As we were leaving the campsite, on the other side of our loop, we came upon a pretty nice herd of elk. The closest ones were no more than a few feet off the road. We tried our best to inch closer to them in the car to get some good pictures.
More to come later. Enjoy!
My wife, 4-year-old daughter, and I had the opportunity to spend 9 days visiting a few national parks. We had planned to hit Arches, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone National Parks. However, our trip to Arches would be over Memorial Day weekend we didn't have any reservations (and any campsites were fully booked), the main campsite in the park was closed, construction was ongoing across the main park road, and Memorial Day weekend is the busiest time of the year at Arches. We scrapped that park and decided to head to Rocky Mountain National Park instead. I finally found some time and start writing up a trip report. First up, Rocky Mountain National Park (May 25-27)
Day 1: Sprague Lake and setting up camp
We booked a site at Moraine Campground and since it was the first day the campground was open, it wasn't too crowded the first night. The second night was a bit more crowded since it was a Friday, but still not too busy at our end of the campground. I read a review on trip advisor for a specific site at this campground that had nice views and access to the meadow below, so we reserved that one. Plus, it was on the loop that didn't allow generators and that was a plus for what we were looking for. Unfortunately, this site was one of the lower sitting sites and there had been quite a bit of rain recently, which led to a bit of a water issue. After a bit of digging with our daughter's shovels and a metal bowl, we had a nice system to get the standing water flowing away from the site. The water flowed steadily through those little trenches the entire time we were there. .
We had gone to the visitor center earlier in the day and talked to him about all the trail conditions and what would be good for a 4-year-old. A few of our initial trail options were still treacherous, but he gave us a few suggestions as to where to go. Since it was already later in the day by this point, we decided to start with Sprague Lake. It was close to the campground and an easy path to walk around for our daughter. For those of you with kids, I'd highly recommend a nice pair of waterproof hiking shoes (our daughter has Keen's) if they are anything like ours. She will seek out any and all puddles.
As we were leaving the campsite, on the other side of our loop, we came upon a pretty nice herd of elk. The closest ones were no more than a few feet off the road. We tried our best to inch closer to them in the car to get some good pictures.
More to come later. Enjoy!