Rocky Mountain National Park
12/14/2025
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Rocky Mountain National Park12/14/2025 |
Located approximately 55 mi (89 km) northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park's 415 square miles (265,807 acres) encompasses a spectacular range of mountain environments: from meadows, wooded forests, mountain tundra to glistening alpine lakes and up to the towering mountain peaks. Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) is one of the highest national parks in the nation, with elevations from 7,860 to 14,259 feet (2,396 to 4,346 m), and the eastern and western slopes of the Continental Divide run directly through the center of the park.
We decided to make a quick day trip to Denver and Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) because we were a few points short of re-qualifying as Gold members for United Airlines before the year end. We had a very early flight from SFO (5AM) to Denver (8:40AM), and got the rental car to drive to RMNP at about 10AM (a long line at the rental car counter). After 2 meals at McDonald's (drive-thru breakfast on HWY25 and lunch in Estes Park), we entered the national park at about 12:30PM (an unexpected long line at the park entrance).
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We drove to the Bear Lake area to take the 3.3-mile (round-trip) trail to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake. We have been to this trail (Nymph Lake and Dream Lake, but not to Emerald Lake) in 2000 when Linus and Iris were still babies. The trail was all covered by snow but was well packed. We only needed to put on our Yaktrax (traction device) and did not need snowshoes at all. All three lakes were frozen solid and we could walk freely across the lakes (a shortcut).
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After about 3 hours on the trail (1PM - 4PM), we were back to the trailhead and started to drive back to Denver. We passed by the visitor center (at 4:32PM) to get a national park map, but the visitor center was already closed at 4:30PM :-( After returning the rental car, dropping off the check-in luggage, going through the security, we were back to the Denver Airport to have a relax dinner (Pho + Burger) and free concert (some passenger played very nice piano at the terminal for ~ 20 minutes) before getting on our flight (9PM) to SFO. After about 21 hours (we left home for SFO airport at 3AM this morning), we were home before midnight and earned our UA Gold for the next year :-)