Rocky Mountain National Park – Mills Lake hike

RMNP and the ever present thunderstorm

It didn’t take much for Conor to convince me to head out for a hike, and since I always neglect the National Park, it didn’t take much more for him to convince me of the trail leading up to Mills Lake. Sadly, even after an entire night’s worth of planning and packing up our day-packs, I forgot to bring a memory card for the camera. I brought the camera, and all the lenses, but could not take a single photo. Thanks to Conor for allowing me to use the photos he took during the trip.

Our planned hike, highlighted in yellow

The National Park in July is a wonder, for sure. With July being one of the wettest months of the year in Colorado, thanks to the afternoon thunderstorms, everything in the park is in full bloom and layered in green upon green upon green. Although it has more traffic, both on the roads and on the trails, it is still worth the trek at this time of the year.

Our trail would bring us right past Alberta Falls, one of the very first hikes I ever did (with Tim and Imelda) in the park back in 2008, so it was nice to revisit the memories. Only a half-mile out Alberta falls is a popular destination to hike out too.

Our goal was another couple miles out; Mills Lake… where we arrived after less than two hours of hiking and a small elevation gain of about 700 feet, bringing us to just under the 10,000 ft elevation mark. Even close to 3 miles away from the trailhead, the lake was pretty crowded with families ‘milling’ about. We made a quick exploration around the lake to take some more photos before settling into what we thought was a nice secluded spot off the trail to have out obligatory PB-sandwhiches.

Mills Lake… ahhh!

Hi… what are you eating there?

It was at this time that a juvenile elk came wandering down the trail getting within 30 feet before we had even seen/heard it. You wouldn’t have though an elk to be stealthy, but wow are they! She (I assume) was so fascinated by the smell of our PB-sandwiches that she even attempted to join us for lunch. She got within 10 feet and we both jumped up, raising our voice and hands to spook her off, but she just looked at us both with wonderment. A little more coaxing and she finally continued on down the trail… adorable, but not worth a hoof-in-the-face if she had gotten any closer.

After this Conor and I parted ways. He continued on to Black Lake (another 2 miles up the trail) while I found a nice spot to take off my T-shirt and get in a little sun-bathing at Mills Lake. 45 minutes I hung out before starting my 3-mile trek back to the trailhead, where I waited another 3 hours before Conor made it back down the trail.

Note to self – sunbathing at 10,000 feet for 45 minutes will give you a sunburn! Wowza!