A day in Rocky Mountain NP, spring 2025: retracing a family vacation

marcmeister26

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Hello everyone,
To honor my dad's memory, who recently passed away, I spent the day driving up to, then snowshoeing around Rocky Mountain NP-retracing part of a family vacation I took with him, his wife, and my brother many years ago. The vacation was a week long road trip throughout Colorado, of which we spent a day around Estes and RMNP. The craziest part of that trip occurred in RMNP, where we had a picnic out in the middle of the wilderness with some gourmet Italian deli meats and cheeses that my dad and wife flew in from a deli in New York. Probably against the rules by today's regulations, but it was a lot of fun at the time. I think he would have enjoyed some of these pictures, but probably would have skipped on all of the snowshoeing I did - preferring the gourmet meats and cheeses instead.

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On the peak to peak highway, just before reaching Estes Park. Mt. Meeker and Longs are in the background with a fresh dusting of snow from a recent storm.


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Estes Park and the Stanley hotel. Lumpy Ridge, with its world class granite rock climbing is visible in the distance.


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Entrance to Rocky Mountain NP with some friendly photobombers. RMNP is a great destination this time of year. There are minimal crowds and tons of snowshoeing/x-country skiing to be had - although many of the south facing trails I tried were surprisingly devoid of snow for this time of year. Snow can turn even the ugliest dirt road into a wonderful x-country ski trail!



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North face of Longs Peak, just after a winter's storm



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The alluvial fan. A popular tourist destination and one of the stops we made in RMNP before our picnic. It gets southern exposure, but I was still surprised to see it completely devoid of snow.



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Near the start of the Fall River road, with Deer Mountain in the background. I had to hike up about 2 miles before reaching significant snow.


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A rocky outcrop like this one was the site of our picnic lunch.



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Or was it this one? Hard to remember - there are a million of these throughout the park. Anyway, thanks for viewing!
 

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