mountain scenery – Live Laugh RV

After two months of city dwelling, it felt wonderful to get back into the great outdoors. Our destination was Rocky Mountain National Park. I booked us into the Glacier Basin Campground located within the National Park and it did not disappoint.

Most National Park Campground facilities were developed long before today’s RV’s were even a glimmer in granddad’s eyes. Thus, when it comes to campsites size does matter 😉 Being wise to this tidbit of knowledge played a very important role in our RV buying decision. We didn’t want a RV that would be too big to fit into some of these National Park campgrounds.

However that said, before making a reservation we wanted to lay eyes on the campgrounds and pick out specific sites. We took a scouting day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park from Denver to check out the camping facilities and see which sites would accommodate our size, and of course which ones had awesome views.

With our modest 31 foot length, we realized we might fit into less than half the campsites. Most of the sites are really geared toward tenting. We did manage to score a nice site with an unbelievably gorgeous view.

We initially thought about leaving my little truck parked at our daughters place in Denver, but at the last minute decided to take it along for our day excursions.

The Tacoma is a lot easier to park than the F-250 with extended bed and this was still August after all; peak tourist season, meaning parking would be a challenge.

Our first full day found us bounding out of bed at 6:00 a.m. and out the door thirty minutes later. Al was none to happy with me and didn’t understand my urgency. Hubby suffers from a severe case of selective hearing and as many times as I briefed him that we would be hiking thee most popular trail in all of Rocky Mountain National Park, he didn’t seem to comprehend what that meant.

We arrived at the Bear Lake trailhead parking lot with the place already a third full with cars. Yep, I was sure glad I was driving the little truck; much easier to park.

I knew I was too late to capture a sunrise over Dream Lake, but apparently plenty of other hikers and photographers were not.

Since this was our first day hiking, we felt a slow and short hike was in order to allow ourselves to acclimate to the 9,500 foot elevation. Many years ago, I experienced altitude sickness and Al and I wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again…. although I was a flatlander back then!

We hiked around Bear Lake twice then headed UP the trail to Nymph Lake. We took our time taking in the beauty before returning to the trailhead around 8:30 a.m.

Upon our return to the parking lot, we noticed orange vest clad workers directing traffic. The lot was already full and as early bird hikers were leaving waiting cars were directed to the newly vacated spot.

Al couldn’t believe the traffic. And of course I couldn’t resist saying, “Told ya so!”Weekends are especially busy in Rocky Mountain National Park, which is understandable considering it’s only about a 75 mile drive from Denver. The campground was full on the weekend and only half full during the week.