Rocky Mtn National Park, Kawunecche Valley

Since we were unable to do the road trip this past weekend, and I was all packed and itching, I went ahead and took a small one by myself to a part of the Rocky Mountain Ntnl Park that I had not visited before; the West side of the park known as Kawunecche Valley.

So, on Sunday evening I rolled up the mountain and into the park. and headed up to and over Trail Ridge Road. The weather was much better up at altitude, just cool enough to put on an over-shirt, but not cold enough to keep me awake overnight. I was lucky with my timing, as once I reached the highest altitude, the sun was into it’s final minutes of the day. I took the opportunity to snap a few sunset images… not something too many people can say they have done; sunset at 12,000 ft altitude. Even the local wildlife came out to enjoy the weather and view.

Once the sun was fully set, there was not much more I could do within the park so I exited out the West entrance to find a place to park for the night. I could not stay within the park limits as all the campgrounds were full, but I could stealth-camp outside the park and hop back in in the morning., so I did just that. By 10PM I had found a gravel parking lot and pulled in, buttoned down the hatches, and called it a night.

I set the alarm for 4AM, which I snoozed a few times, but after a quick cup of coffee and oatmeal, I was back into the park limits waiting for the sun to rise to start one a short hike right at the Kuwanechee Visitor’s Center (they had bathrooms and WiFi too). This was not a long or hard trail, only a 2-mile round trip trek through the trees, but it got me warmed up for the day. I ran into another herd of Elk, which I gave a lot of room as they had young in the herd, and took numerous pictures of the flowers in the early morning light. I returned back to the van and drove on to the next trail on the map; Green Mountain.

I arrived at the Green Mountain trail head and just couldn’t bring myself to go. I ended up setting my alarm for 9am and taking a 1.5 hour nap before taking to the trail. Once I got moving though, I quickly traversed the 2 miles (uphill mind you) to reach my overall destination of Big Meadows. The trail itself was riddled with so many flowers, many of which drew the attention of my camera, but I kept moving as best I could.

40 minute later I popped out of the trees and into Big Meadows. While not a very big meadow, it was still worth the hike… and the breeze was welcome as the day was already heating up. I hung out for an hour taking pictures and enjoyed a snack before heading back down the trail to the van.

My original plane was to move on to the each trail head and at least explore a few hundred yards if not a mile or so of each, but by the time I returned to the van, the parking lot was full and so were all others. It became a traffic jam at any place you can stop so I passed by each trail head as I saw the full lots. Over the next few hours I crept back up and over Trail Ridge Road, out of the park, and was home in time for the afternoon heat.

I was happy to get out of town and into the trees, if even for only a half-day. And the park itself was as glamorous as I have ever seen it with so much plant-life because of the extra snow pack from the recent winter. I got to give all the new systems in the van a trial run before any large-scale trip and all is good. I will certainly be heading back up the mountain in the coming weeks, not only to avoid some of the heat, but also to get in some more of the sights before winter tightens it’s grasp on the Rocky Mountains once again.