We normally lay low on holiday weekends, but the weather was beautiful and we couldn’t resist a day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. We had a plan. We were going to Fern Lake, a spot in the middle of the park that we have never visited. We knew that the park requires reservations for entry, and special reservations to get to the Bear Lake basin. When the reservation window opened Saturday morning, Lara immediately pounced on a 9am entry reservation. They were all snatched immediately.
Undeterred, we got up early to get into the park before the reservations were required, but when we pulled onto the road toward the trail, we learned the trailhead was behind the Bear Lake reservation checkpoint and were turned back. After scrambling for a few minutes for a “Plan C”, we pivoted to the Beaver Meadows trailhead. It didn’t have access to the dramatic sections of the park (at least not easily), but at least we could get there.
We hiked about 2.5 miles up toward the Elk Meadows backcountry campground. The trail passed through old wildfire locations, and along the edge of a cliff overlooking the Big Thompson River and Fern Lake trailhead. Despite our disappointment in not getting to the sites we had planned, we enjoyed the hike and found plenty of awesome scenery. Fern Lake will just have to wait until next time.
