Best trails in Rocky Mountain National Park
Top trails
Visitor info
1-Day Motorcycle Entrance Pass. This pass is valid for one private motorcycle to enter RMNP for one day only. One pass is good for one motorcycle (including all riders). Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at the any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
7-Day Motorcycle Entrance Pass. This park entrance pass is valid for one motorcycle to enter RMNP for 7 consecutive days (including all riders). Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at the any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
1-Day Per Person Entrance Pass. This park entrance fee is for individuals, walk-ins, bicycles, and non-commercial groups to enter RMNP for 1-day only. Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at the any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
7-Day Per Person Entrance Pass. This park entrance fee is for individuals, walk-ins, bicycles, and non-commercial groups to enter RMNP for 7 consecutive days. Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at the any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
1-Day Vehicle Entrance Pass. This pass is valid for one private vehicle to enter RMNP for one day only. All passengers inside the vehicle are covered. Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
7-Day Vehicle Entrance Pass. This vehicle entrance pass is valid for one vehicle to enter RMNP for 7 consecutive days. All passengers inside the vehicle are covered. Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at the any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
RMNP Park-specific Annual Pass. This park pass is valid for entry to RMNP only for 1 year. One pass is good for one passholder and may be used in any personal vehicle. Park entrance passes may be purchased in person at the any of the park's entrance stations or in advance online at www.recreation.gov.
Join millions of people who enjoy our National Parks with the "America the Beautiful" National Park & Federal Recreational Lands Pass, otherwise known as the Interagency Annual Pass. The pass is valid for a year's worth of visits from the month of purchase at more than 2,000 federal recreation sites across the country.
No entrance pass required on these days:
Monday, January 20 — Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saturday, April 19 — First day of National Park Week
Thursday, June 19 — Juneteenth National Independence Day
Monday, August 4 — Anniversary of the Great American Outdoors Act
Saturday, September 27 — National Public Lands Day
Tuesday, November 11 — Veterans Day
The Interagency Access Pass is accepted here.
The visitor centers, bookstores, and information desks are all accessible to visitors using mobility equipment or strollers. The visitor centers also have wheelchair accessible restrooms and drinking fountains. Park films at the Beaver Meadows and Kawuneeche Village Visitor Centers include closed captioning.
An all-terrain wheelchair can be checked out at no cost. Call the main park number (970-586-1206) for more information or to make a reservation.
The park brochure is available in braille and large print. Assistive listening devices and sign language interpretation services are available but require advanced notice to guarantee availability (two weeks is suggested for assisted listening devices and a month for sign language interpreters).
Additional information about accessibility at Rocky Mountain National Park can be found on their website: https://www.nps.gov/romo/planyourvisit/accessibility.htm.
The summer shuttle buses that operate along the Bear Lake corridor are wheelchair accessible. Call Rocky Mountain Transit at (970) 577-7477 to learn about Town of Estes Park shuttle buses.
Electric Personal Assistance Mobility Devices (EPAMD), such as Segways, are allowed for people with disabilities in certain areas, including sidewalks, parking lots, roads closed to motor vehicles, and four trails.
The visitor centers, bookstores, and information desks are all mobility equipment accessible. The visitor centers also have wheelchair accessible restrooms and drinking fountains. Park films at the Beaver Meadows and Kawuneeche Village Visitor Centers include closed captioning.
There are wheelchair accessible picnic tables and restrooms at several trailheads, including Lily Lake, Sprague Lake, and Coyote Valley. Many of the overlooks along Trail Ridge Road have designated accessible parking.
There are both “front-country” and “back-country” wheelchair accessible camping sites at various locations.
Service animals must be on-leash throughout the park.
Trail reviews for Rocky Mountain National Park
Full summer conditions, as well as no downed trees. The lookout is closed but the views are still good. Pretty steady climb throughout but nothing hard. The trail enters Rocky Mountain National Park about .75 miles in so just be aware that your hiking under those rules.
Proud to say this is the first notably tall mountain I’ve climbed all the way to the summit. It was an incredibly rewarding challenge. It was a great day to climb it my girlfriend and I were basically the only people there had the summit to ourselves and beautiful views of tall snowy peaks all around. This hike was no joke you must be prepared to climb it at this time of year. Micro spikes are incredibly important and snow shoes would have been useful in some spots even. Getting up that high in elevation felt so surreal and Rocky Mountain national park is truly sensational. I can’t describe the feeling you get from climbing a mountain of this size. We were well acclimatized after 5 days of hiking in the park but this was the highest we have gone above the treeline. We saw someone snowboarding down from flat top mountain which was super bad ass. Hallett peak is something I will never forget. Check out the pictures I attached!
The ice on Emerald Lake is breaking up. Nymph and Dream lakes have no ice.The snow makes great memories and photos. Plenty of hikers did not have shoe chains and went slower with far more slipping. Lots of people but no real complaints. Epic Rocky Mountain experience!
A good first hike in Rocky Mountain. I started before 6AM and parked at Bear Lake Trailhead which still had plenty of parking — Glacier Gorge lot was already full. No snow and not really muddy although there were still puddles on parts of the trail under tree cover. The falls are pretty. Good trail to warm up before heading to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes.
Epic! Majestic! A Must Hike! We hiked along the gorgeous river to see Beautiful waterfalls with Rocky Mountains backdrop. Friendly hikers- lallygagging along taking pics of amazing vistas and wildflowers. Hungry chipmunks at East Meadow area. Definitely be prepared for changing of weather, we experienced rain, sleet for few minutes, wind, sunshine with changing temps of 45 to mid 50’s.
Hike to the lake in and of itself would have been a 4 for me. Fairly easy with steps instead of ramp-up (steps are so much nicer imo). And a decent amount of nice views along the way + the unique bathroom with the window to one of said decent views. But the lake itself at ground level is more of a brown pond, hence the 4 if not going off trail. BUT there is also a fun rock you can (perhaps) boulder up to get a bird's eye view of said bathroom, which was rather fun and neat; and there is also SO much scrambling available on the big rocks post-trail, which is again super fun, and offers a bird's eye view of the lake (pond) as well as a bunch of other pretty lovely looks in pretty much every possible direction. So that all took it to a very strong 5 for me and a great finish to my day in Rocky Mountain park!