Where: Rocky Mountain National Park
Distance: 4 miles
Difficulty: Easy
Wildlife: Elk, Marmot, Pika
Take a drive over Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park and you are guaranteed to see some wildlife. It is a beautiful drive, but not for the faint of heart. The steep drop offs warrant that you trust your driver if you're not the driver yourself. :)
Our destination for the day after camping out at Timber Creek campground was a trail right off the side of Trail Ridge Road called the Ute Trail. When you look at the map of the park, don't be confused as you'll see two trails labeled Ute. The one this post refers to is the Ute "Crossing" trail.
A magnificent Elk pictured below was captured munching on some grass across the road from the start of the trailhead.
There isn't much space to park here as it is just side road parking. We were lucky though and were able to grab a spot a quarter mile up the road. We ate a quick sandwich for lunch in the car and when we were just about finishing up and ready to go hike a bunch of elk came into view causing a slight traffic jam on the road. ( see we arrived to get a parking spot just in time :) )
I took quite a few photos of the group of Elk below.
After the distraction of the Elk, we started on our hike.
There is a short incline in the beginning, but most of the hike is fairly flat with just a little up and down here and there.
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| The start of the trail. |
What is also a nice feature of this hike is that it is all above tree line if that is something that you like. I love being surrounded by trees and the feeling of being enclosed in a forest, but some days I also like having expansive views of an open space. Most hikes have a steep elevation gain before you get the reward of an expansive view whereas this one is an immediate view for the entirety of the hike.
Here a marmot peers at us from the safe perch of a rock.
The trail reaches Timberline Pass at 2 miles. It does keep going onwards, but the pass is a good turnaround point for a short excursion. The trail also descends beyond this point and is no longer flat.
Off to the side of the trail we could faintly hear some pikas. At the pass there was another marmot. They seem to really like this habitat.
Time to head back...
You will also see a great view of Long's Peak in the distance when heading towards the pass. In the below photo it is the flat top towards the left of the photo.
Jesse heading on back in the photo below.
I've started tracking my hikes with a new app with Gaia. I previously used Backpacker, but when I needed to get a new phone I wasn't able to re-download it. Gaia seems to work pretty well so far. I'd recommend it.
Happy Trails !
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