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Rocky Mountain National Park
Today I want to talk to you a little bit about the Rocky Mountain National Park. This might help to give you some ideas on how to plan your trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Rocky Mountain National Park is located in Colorado, just west of Fort Collins and northwest of Denver. It’s a great destination to go camping, both in a tent or in RV. It has majestic mountain peaks that stretch up in to the sky, with beautiful valleys and wildlife all around.
When going to the Rocky Mountain National Park axcess it from the east of Denver, Fort Collins area. That’s the most accessible side of the park. There’s a lot more accommodations, shopping, food and fuel in that area. Estes Park is the entrance to the National Park from this way and there are several routes into Estes Park. Depending on your location and route you’re coming from, Estes Park has a number of private parks and campgrounds inside and around the area.
Estes Park
A lot of people end up spending their vacations here in Estes Park because there’s so much to see and do. It has a nice downtown area and there are some great RV parks and campgrounds. There is also a number of campgrounds that are National Park campgrounds located just outside of Estes Park. These include Glacier Basin which is a very pretty campground for visiting with your RV.
Moraine Park Campground is an RV accessible campground and Aspen Glen is also RV accessible. Rocky Mountain National Park is a popular destination and campgrounds fill up from Spring all the way through to fall. So make reservations in advance before going there so you are sure to have a spot. You’re not likely to be able to walk in and find a campsite in the National Park. Private RV Parks can also have sites so that’s always another backup plan. If all else fails you could drop south into the forest and try to find some forest camping too.
Beetle Kill
The National Park actually clear cut trees through there in an effort to avoid damage from the bark beetle. It took away the shade, but created some majestic views from the sites.There are sites out in the trees that are very nice to stay in. The sites in the trees are a little bit tighter for some of the big rigs to move around in. Moraine Park is a pretty campground especially for tents and smaller RVs. Moraine Park is a popular campground it has a large loop road so there’s more opportunity to find sites and spaces.
Aspen Glen again is another RV Park and campground in the National Park and offers good access for RVs and tents. So in planning your trip to Rocky Mountain National Park most people enter from the Denver direction, the main highway is US 34. It’s a long climb up the road all the way up to the upper peak here at Trail Ridge. There is a dirt road that’s open seasonally up there it is the old Fall River Road you can actually drive.
Timber Creek Campground
On the back side of the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park there is Timber Creek Campground. Timber Creek is a great option if you’re here in the summer time because it rarely ever completely fills up. It offers good access to some nice tent and RV sites in an open setting. Like the other campgrounds this one has been clear cut due to the damage of the bark beetle. In an effort to avoid the danger of falling trees.So there’s plenty of space here and lots of room. In our case we camped there once with our truck and backed right in and so it’s a nice place to stay and often not as crowded as the other side of the park.
If you enter from the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park you’ll come to Granby Grand Lake. In Grand Lake there are a number of campgrounds both public and private. These sites are very convenient to the National Park. In fact Grand Lake is probably a little bit closer to the National Park and has less traffic. From the sites you are going to be able to move a bit quicker up the road and get to the destinations. Grand Lake also has Lake Granby and on the south shore there’s a road. This is marked as six and this road has a number of forest service campgrounds along it.
Sunset Point
The Sunset Point campground is a great little spot to stop because it has nice RV sites and pretty views of water. Drive down this road it’s a graded gravel road and there’s a number of campgrounds back here. Arapahoe Bay has some very pretty campgrounds that are located back in there. The advantage to these is that they’re gonna be less crowded and allow you to find a place to stay. Sunset Point also there is Green Ridge and Cutthroat Bay.
Stillwater Campground this one is right off the highway and is very easy to get to. It offers camping up on the side of a hill overlooking a lake so it’s pretty locations to see from. It has hook ups here too so this is a great campground. This tends to be busier because of the hookups, it could be a fallback for a place to stay.
Rocky Mountain itself is accessible off of US 34 and a lot of folks will hike into the backcountry campgrounds. They will also and camp along the trails, obviously the major mountain peaks are always a great destination. For the family that’s essentially it for Rocky Mountain National Park entering from the west or the east. There’s campgrounds both public and private leading into and then the national park campgrounds inside of it. Granby, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park and discover your campground or RV Park to spend your vacation at Rocky Mountain National Park.