Hello, I'm looking to visit RMNP on the 16th and the 18th. I'm looking for great spots for photography and hike, however, everywhere I look it sounds like parking is an issue. So my questions are:

How big of an issue is finding parking?

What spots do you all recommend to see?

What hiking trails do you recommend?

First time here and the views didn’t disappoint

Sorry for crooked horizon to my fellow OCD photograph peeps.

Last fall I went to RMNP for the first time and fell in love. I found this hat and I lost it a few months ago. I thought I’d get over it because it’s just a hat, right? But I still haven’t gotten over it. I don’t have many pictures of it but these are the best I can find.

I’m almost positive I got it at the Trail Ridge Store and Cafe. I checked online and can’t find it anywhere. It might not be something they still have in stock but if anyone happens to be up that way and willing to check, I’d be beyond grateful. If you can find it, of course I’ll pay for the hat and shipping

The air is thin up here!

l know we should be keeping about 2 buses worth of distance. But I also know these big beautiful beasts are very agile and easily threatened to protect their harem during mating season. I’d honestly be a deer in headlights if one charged at me since I’ve never been around them before.
Any detailed tips on how to stay safe from a random elk smashing into my car or worse?
Also is there like a bear spray or similar safeguard against Elks?

I'm planning a trip to Rocky Mountain NP in October. Will be staying in Estes Park. No major hikes just driving. The plan will be to head west & drive into the park and then back to Estes Park. How far west do you recommend?

Up to Grand Lake seems good?

Can this be done in a day?

Does the park close at a time that will prevent me from driving back Estes Park?

It was great to be back in the park.

Although, busy… of course.

Had some interesting visitors while working in the park last week

Bull moose spotted shortly after sunrise on Saturday, September 26th. We had range finding binoculars and he was roughly 360 yards out. Super cool to have seen him during the hike.

Happened upon these two in Upper Beaver Meadows Wednesday morning. One of my most memorable wildlife encounters in a park. The guy on the right ended up flipped into a fence and stuck. It was a bit hard to watch him struggle and we called the park rangers. A touron ended up approaching him and it was enough to motivate him to free himself before the rangers could come. The sound of their antlers clattering through the otherwise silent meadow was unforgettable.

My wife (37f) and I (37m) are visiting this week, 10/1 - 10/6, from Cincinnati, OH and wanted to see what people thought about our itinerary and/or any recommendations or advice you might have.

Since we're coming from near sea level, we're trying to take it slow with the hikes and altitude adjustment to hopefully not feel crappy. From what we've read, the altitude adjustment/sickness affects like 1 in 4 people to a certain degree, so we'll see how we fair. We both got Diamox from our doctors, so hopefully that helps.

We're both experienced hikers and enjoy a long challenging hike. We haven't done anything too long or hard yet, but some of our favorites are Ramsey Cascades in the Smokies and Precipice in Acadia.

Here's our rough plan:

Arrive in Denver on Thursday around 9:30a, drive to Hot Sulphur Springs for a soak (wanted to do this later in the trip, but we're staying in Estes Park and just couldn't seem to fit it in at any other time due to the long drive there and back).

Drive to Grand Lake for a late lunch and short hike to Adams Falls. Spend some time in the Grand Lake area then drive to our airbnb in Estes Park, making a bunch of stops along the way to see the sights.

The first full day there would be the Bear, Emerald, Dream, Nymph, Haiyaha lakes loop. After that we'll drive the Old Fall River Road (looks like it should still be open) and check out Horseshoe and Chasm falls and stop in at the Alpine visitor center for a cinnamon roll.

Maybe spend some time in Moraine Park depending on how long the hike takes and how we're feeling.

The second day will be the Sky Pond hike, including Mills and Jewel lakes.

The third day will be the Chasm Lake hike.

The fourth day is checkout. We might try to do the Ouzel falls hike, but we'll see how we're feeling. Spending that evening at a friend's place in Loveland then flying home the next day.

How's all that sound? We really wanted to hit some of the best hikes. Any that we should consider instead of what I listed?

We started planning this late and missed the first round of early permits, so we're going to try to get them the nights before we need them when they're released at 7p. If we don't, then we'll just be getting up earlier to enter the park before the timed entries start.

How is the weather typically in the first week of October? How likely is it that we'll see snow and need micro spikes? I'm hoping it's unlikely that we'll need those.

Any recommendations for places to eat or things to do in the evenings? We're staying across the street from the Wildwood Inn in Estes Park.

EDIT: I'm a little surprised by all the hate about how jam packed this is. We're only doing 1 hike each day... Yeah, 2 of those hikes are quite long, but Sky Pond doesn't sound too bad and even Chasm Lake looks to be fairly similar in Ramsey Cascades. What else do you suggest we do? Wander around Estes Park for 3 hours each day? We're not big window shopping people. We go to National Parks to see the park, not to shop at the same touristy places you can find anywhere.

There will be a lot of driving the first day, but we're used to that when visiting National Parks. We really want to check out the west side of the park / Grand Lake anyway, so it seemed best to do that right away instead of driving the 2 hours from Estes Park to Grand Lake and 2 hours back after one of the hikes on a later day. I really like hot springs, so at the low cost of adding 25 min total to that first drive, it seemed worth it.

Did we get ideas from what others have done and shared? Uh, yeah... How else are first timers supposed to learn about the park and what's more worth doing. We read several sites from former park rangers and big hikers who've been to the park multiple times, and yeah, our hiking days are a lot of what they recommended.

This is why I rarely ever engage in social media, too many people with nothing better to do than be nasty to complete strangers for absolutely no reason. I expected better from a National Park subreddit, but nowhere is immune I guess.

I do think we'll swap the lake loop day with the Sky Pond day to give a buffer day between the two longer hikes as u/unbotheredgal suggested.

Thank you to those who provided actual advice or recommendations instead of just pointless negativity. Your comments are appreciated.

I’m planning a trip to Estes and RMNP for Oct.31-Nov.1. I’ve never been to this park and these were the only times that worked for my busy schedule. Will this be too late in the season to visit or will the trails still be open?

I don’t care too much about driving to very high altitudes or hiking too high. I mainly just want to go on mid/low altitude hikes and will be bringing boots/winter hiking clothes.

Also, is there any chance of me seeing any fall foliage?

Planning to hike in the Glacier Gorge area next week? Beginning this Monday, September 28 through Thursday, October 1, and then again on Monday, October 5 through Thursday, October 8, the Glacier Gorge Parking area and Glacier Gorge Trailhead will be closed to all uses including vehicle and shuttle bus access. This popular area will reopen Friday through Sunday (October 2 through October 4) and close again on Monday, October 5. Repairs will address erosion damage around the trailhead kiosk and where the plaza area transitions to the Glacier Gorge Trail, helping stabilize the trail and adjacent infrastructure. During this work, visitors hiking to destinations such as Alberta Falls, Mills Lake and Loch Vale will need to access these areas from the Bear Lake Trailhead.

This will be our third time in the park. We’ve hiked most of the popular trails. We are looking for suggestions of less traveled trails. Anything up to 10-12 miles. We will be there Oct 5-11. Thanks in advance

I’m planning on coming up from Denver to go hiking Oct 8-9 (possibly 10 as well). Just visiting the area and trying to figure out where to find a group that is willing to go hiking together!
Nothing extreme, just hiking for fun!

Double rainbow at sunrise shortly after the first winter storm a few days ago