The Best Half Day Trip in Rocky Mountain National Park

The kids told me that this was the best mother’s day ever! Haha! We did have a wonderful half day trip in Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw so many animals, went on some hikes, and had lunch and dinner in the park. It truly was a great day!

We got to the park about 1ish. We left a little after 6. So we were in the park about 5 hours. I feel like we saw so much in that amount of time.

Since it was May we could not go all the way through the park, meaning Trail Ridge Road. And Old Fall River Road was closed as well. Bear Lake was still frozen and all around the lake was covered in snow.

Below I’ll give you a run down of what we saw and did in the park. I hope that it will help you plan your next full day or half day trip in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Reservations

Since we went Mother’s Day weekend, reservations were not needed. As per the Rocky Mountain National Park website, timed-entry was not needed for the day that we went. I even called to make sure that we didn’t need reservations. And while I had the lady on the phone, I made sure that we could get into Bear Lake as well, without a reservation, she confirmed what the website had stated.

If you go to the park from 5/27-10/10 you’ll need a reservation… AND don’t forget that you still have to pay to get into the park! It’s a 2 step process… just to get in! OH! AND…Don’t forget that while you are making your reservation that you want Bear Lake access too!

The good ol’ days before COVID… you just paid your fee and off you went to enjoy whatever you wanted.

The afternoon that we went, there wasn’t even a line to get into the park. The last time we were there, we waited for about 20 minutes… just to get to the booth, to pay our fee, to get into the park! Craziness! When we got to the park this time, we decided to buy the America the Beautiful pass. $80 bucks that’ll set you back. BUT… you get to enjoy any National Park! If you buy a one day pass… $30 for the car load. Since we already have plans to go to Great Sand Dunes, Florissant Fossil Beds and RMNP again just this year alone, it was worth it for us to purchase the pass.

Then this coming school year, our oldest son will be in 4th grade and he’ll be able to get a free pass. This just means more National Parks for us!

Where we had lunch and dinner

It was a little after 1 once we got into the park. We wanted to have lunch at Alluvial Fan picnic area, but the parking lot was full. We were going to park at the over flow parking lot but decided on Lawn Lake Trailhead. It was quiet and there was no one around. Bonus, there were bathrooms.

In order to get there, you enter the park at the Fall River Entrance Station. Then pass Sheep Lake. The first street on your right, make a right. The parking lot is on the right. This road will also take you to Old Fall RIver Road, but it was closed.

For lunch we had hotdogs and chips. Nothing fancy but a warm meal on a cold day was nice.

For dinner, what did we have…??? Yep, you guessed it… Hotdogs again! Dinner was not planned. I actually had brought 2 packages of hotdogs thinking that since they were small we’d eat more than we did. Well… it’s a good thing because by the time we were done hiking Nymph Lake we were starving and decided to eat in the park, then eat again once we got back to our camper.

We pulled over into the Hollowell Park Trailhead. As we were leaving Bear Lake, this road is on the left. Once you enter the road there is a picnic spot to the right. We pulled in there and ate really quick. I didn’t get a picture this time. David had bathroom duty with the kids, while I cooked. So we weren’t together much at this time.

Where did we go

Moraine Park

After lunch we went into the Beaver Meadow entrance. It’s where you’ll have to show your Bear Lake entrance pass once reservations start up. Once we got onto Bear Lake Road, the first street on the right is Moraine Park. We turned to explore Moraine Park. But before we headed to the campground we made a left.

I have no idea if this road has a name. But if you are looking at the map there are 2 trailheads on this road, Cub Lake and Fern Lake. The road turns to gravel once you pass Cub Lake. We saw many people fishing along the creek.

We saw a huge herd of Elk on this road, waaaaay off in the distance. I did get a picture that I’ll share below.

Moraine Campground

We then headed to the Moraine Campground. We wanted to scope out some good campsites for when we get brave and camp in the park. 🙂

While we were there we saw the Ranger Station security. 😉 There was a momma moose and her baby lying outside of the station. I completely missed them both. David saw them. Ol’ eagle eyes!

Bear Lake

We left Moraine Campground and went to Bear lake. There were signs saying that the parking lot was full before we got into the park and once we were almost to Bear Lake. The parking lot was not even half full. Someone forgot to turn off the signs…

We parked, suited up in all our warm clothes and off we went. I knew there would be snow still all around the lake, but the snow was DEEP. The snow was so deep in places that our daughter fell leg deep into the snow. She was walking near a tree and stepped through the snow. It was as deep as her entire leg.

Some poor women in their fancy shoes were trying to walk through all the snow. A few slipped, turned back or had gotten hurt, this was all in the few minutes that we had been there. We had on our hiking boots/shoes and didn’t have too many issues. Snow boots or spikes would have been better, but we did fine.

Nymph Lake

Once we finished the hike around Bear Lake we decided to keep going and went to Nymph Lake. This hike we slipped a lot more. Mainly because the kids were goofy off and trying to slide. I was carrying the little cub, he was getting tired and SUPER slow. I lost my footing a few times, but never fell.

This hike felt like it took forever. We were getting tired, hungry and thirsty. We didn’t prepare to hike past Bear Lake, so we didn’t bring any water with us. That was a big mistake. We should have brought water.

We did see one animal during our hike. We saw a Snow Bunny. No, not a lady dressed in a white ski outfit. An actual bunny in the snow.

What did we see

What did we see…. so many animals!!! Before we even got into the park we saw Big Horn Sheep in the Big Thompson Canyon on the way to the park. Then right outside of the park we saw Elk on the side of the road grazing.

Once we got into the park we actually saw sheep… at Sheep Lake. We never see anything there. And when we were leaving we saw some Coyotes laying around in the open area at Sheep Lake. I didn’t get pictures because by the time we figured out what we saw we were already too far to take a decent picture.

We saw an Elk heard at Moraine Park and a momma moose and her baby at Moraine Campground.

We saw a Snow Bunny in the snow at Nymph Lake.

We saw a couple Elk grazing near the road once we left our lunch spot.

We saw lots of deer in the park. There were several herds throughout the drive around the park.

After we had dinner, on our way out, we got stuck in traffic. When you get stuck in traffic at Rocky Mountain National Park, you know it’s because of a stubborn animal blocking the road. Well… this time it was a male Turkey. He was not a happy Turkey. He was lost and yelling. Come to find out, his wife was on the other side of the road and he couldn’t find her. Once he crossed the road, a few times, to prove that he wasn’t a chicken, (mom joke) he then found her. He stopped yelling and all traffic was able to move.

Frequently Asked Questions

The last thing you need to know about planning your half day trip in Rocky Mountain National Park

• Get a reservation
• Pack a lunch and maybe extras for dinner.
• Bring binoculars or a really good camera for viewing animals
• Bring a jacket…always bring a jacket. And maybe snow boots, a rain jacket and a towel. I’m kidding, kind of.
• ALWAYS check your surroundings. Don’t be the person that gets attacked by a momma moose because you didn’t see her 6 foot baby!
• Enjoy the smaller hikes, go slow and really soak up what the park has to offer.

When was the last time you were at Rocky Mountain National Park? What did you do and see while you were there?