Rocky Mountain National Park is a hiker’s paradise containing over 350 miles of hiking trails throughout the park. If you love hiking, it won’t be hard for you to have a great time. If you’re not a hiker, don’t worry. You can still enjoy Rocky Mountain National Park without hiking.
I don’t consider myself to be a huge hiker. However, if there’s a good view involved, I’m much more likely to get out and hike. Knowing this, I planned my time at Rocky Mountain National Park around the hikes with the best views. It was a great plan, but as I hiked down from Sky Pond, I dislocated my knee. All of my hiking plans went out the window. This experience forced me to look at the park with a new perspective.
While Rocky Mountain National Park has some amazing hikes, there’s loads to do if you don’t love hiking. You’ll find scenic drives, walks that are a mile or less (and can be shortened) and educational experiences.
Rocky Mountain National Park Without Hiking
So if you’re not a big hiker, here’s a few options for your trip to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Trail Ridge Road
If you don’t love hiking, this is probably going to be your top experience at Rocky Mountain. Trail Ridge Road is the scenic drive that connects Grand Lake to Estes Park. It spans the entire width of the park and has so many gorgeous viewpoints. From the tundra to areas below the treeline, I don’t think I visited a bad view point on this road.
While it’s possible to only drive a portion of this road, I’d recommend driving all of it. The scenery changes so dramatically across the entire road, that it would be a shame to miss some of it.
I recommend starting in Grand Lake, on the far western point of this road. Why? Because I believe the views get better as you go from west to east. In Grand Lake, you drive through a section of the park that was destroyed in a forest fire. However, you’ll still find plenty of beauty. As you drive east, you’ll climb higher in elevation until you find yourself above the treeline. This area is known as the tundra. Finally, as you come back down, you hit stunning mountain views that will make you say “wow!”.
Trail Ridge Road takes a minimum of one and a half hours to drive (one way). If you start and end in Estes Park (or Grand Lake), you’ll need a minimum of three hours. These estimates are just minimums and I recommend giving yourself a minimum of two hours one way. You’ll want to stop at the various view points along your journey. Plus, you never know when you’ll need to slow down for traffic.
Know Before You Go: If you plan to enter the park (which includes driving Trail Ridge Road) between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm, you need to have a timed entry. When I visited, several people were turned away because they did not have a reservation. Since reservations sell out, make sure to purchase your reservation in advance.
Bonus: If you start and end your drive in Estes Park, consider using the one way Endovalley Road. This road starts near the eastern side of the park and finishes at the Alpine Visitor Center. From the Alpine Visitor Center, you can rejoin Trail Ridge Road. The scenery on Trail Ridge Road is spectacular, but Endovalley Road will give you slightly different scenery. I have not driven this road, but it’s on my list for my next visit to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Alpine Visitor Center
The Alpine Visitor Center is the highest visitor center in all of the U.S. National Parks. The views around here are incredible.
If you’re up to it, there’s a short walk just beyond the visitor center. This trail is a half mile round trip and is also known as the “Huffers Hill”. It’s not technically difficult. The path is paved and has actual stairs instead of steep hill. The challenging part is that you start at nearly 11,800 feet and finish at 12,005 feet of elevation. This pathway was full of people and nearly every person I passed was huffing and puffing their way up the hill. If you can make it, the views are amazing.
Visit an Alpine Lake
Rocky Mountain National Park has many hiking trails leading to alpine lakes. Several of these trails can require a lot of hiking to get there. Others can be visited with no hiking at all. But at all of these lakes, you do have the option to get out and walk around the lakes. Since it’s completely optional, I think it’s valid to include these.
Bear Lake
To visit Bear Lake, you’ll need a timed entry permit (unless you plan to enter before 5:00 am or after 6:00 pm).
Bear Lake Road is a springboard for some of the most popular hikes in at Rocky Mountain National Park. Bear Lake is also the start for several of those trails. Even if you’re not a big hiker, this area is still worth visiting.
Bear Lake sits at the end of Bear Lake road. A walk around the lake is about 0.7 miles and has 50 feet of elevation gain. The beginning parts of this trail are labeled as wheelchair accessible. Signs are posted to warn wheelchair users when they should stop and turn around. After the warning signs, the trail gets a bit steeper and more uneven.
On my visit, Bear Lake was incredibly foggy, so I don’t have great pictures. However I did walk the wheelchair accessible portions of the trail (as that was all I could manage).
Sprague Lake
This alpine lake also sits in the Bear Lake corridor, but is slightly further north. Since fewer hikes start here, this area felt much more quiet than Bear Lake.
However, I was still dealing with huge bouts of fog, so my photos aren’t the greatest here either.
The walk around Sprague Lake is 0.8 miles and has 36 feet of elevation gain. The NPS lists this entire path as wheelchair accessible. I can’t speak to how well this is though, as I only walked a very short portion of this path.
Lily Lake
This is my final alpine lake on this list, but I think this lake is important to mention because it sits outside the Bear Lake corridor. This lake is actually outside the main entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park. However, you must pay the entrance fee and have a timed entry permit for Trail Ridge Road (depending on the time of your visit).
Lily Lake is 0.8 miles and has 29 feet of elevation gain. The entire trail is another wheelchair accessible trail, but I only walked a small portion of it.
This lake was my favorite of the three, but that’s only because I had the clearest weather here (although there was still a lot of fog here).
View Some Wildlife
This can be hard to plan because it seems like so much of it involves being in the right place at the right time. I saw plenty of elk during my visit, but Rocky Mountain National Park is also home to sheep, moose, deer, and many more roaming animals throughout the park.
If you want to view wildlife, the National Park Service has several a few good tips to help you out and stay safe.
Attend a Ranger Program
Throughout the season, rangers offer talks to give visitors more information about the park. These talks can cover a variety of subjects from wildlife to ecology and more. If this interest you, look ahead to see what is planned for your visit. Additionally, I recommend asking at the Visitor Center on the day of your visit. Confirm the programs and see if there’s anything new.
How Much Time Do You Need At Rocky Mountain National Park?
If you plan to visit Rocky Mountain National Park without hiking, you don’t need a ton of time. Technically, you could easily accomplish most of the things on this list in one day, but it’d be a very busy day. I’d recommend giving yourself at least a day and a half here, although two days can be better. This allows you to go at a more relaxed pace so you can enjoy the beauty of this park without the sense of rushing everywhere.
Additionally, weather can be unpredictable so two days gives you slightly better odds to see and do everything you want to do. During my ten days in Colorado, I spent three days at Rocky Mountain National Park. Only one of those days had clear skies.
Final Thoughts
Rocky Mountain National Park is a hiker’s paradise and that will not change. Non-hikers need to accept that there are more options for dedicated hikers. Still with the right amount of preparation and an understanding of what your options are, you can have a great time at Rocky Mountain National Park, even if you aren’t going to be hiking for 10+ miles every single day.
And for those of us who injure ourselves and can’t manage our original plans, there’s still a few options to enjoy your time.
Continue Your Adventure
Rocky Mountain National Park: If you’re looking for a hiking challenge, consider hiking to Sky Pond. Regardless of what you do at Rocky Mountain National Park, make sure that you get a timed entry.
Colorado National Parks: Colorado is home to four national parks. Along with Rocky Mountain, you’ll also find Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Great Sand Dunes, and Mesa Verde National Parks.
More in Colorado: One of the best things about Colorado is its plethora of scenic drives. Check out my list of favorites.
Colorado Itineraries: For an epic road trip through Colorado, check out this 10 day itinerary. Or if you don’t have ten days, try one of these 5 day Colorado itineraries.