Norah and I added a few days in Estes Park at the end of our Nebraska visit to do some hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. Last time we were in RMNP, Norah was a baby - so we were excited to return and do some exploring. There are a lot of great hikes to choose from, and I picked some of the classics: the Five Lakes Hike (Bear, Nymph, Dream, Emerald, and Haiyaha Lakes), Sky Pond, and Mt. Ida.

The first two hikes are in the Bear Lake corridor and require a special timed-entry reservation. I had no problem securing reservations when they were released, although on one day we didn’t even need one, as we arrived before the reservation window began (5 a.m.). We wanted an early start to get parking and beat any potential afternoon thunderstorms. Mt. Ida only requires the standard park reservation (between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.), but we didn’t need it then either since we got a much earlier start.

All the hikes were beautiful, and I’m glad we did them in the order we did, because they got better each day. Bear Lake is incredibly busy (as we expected), but it was worth it to see the pretty lakes, and it was a good warm-up hike. The Sky Pond hike was longer, with a gorgeous destination. We lingered at the lake for quite a while to soak in the views of the imposing Sharkstooth and bask in the sun.

Our third hike was our favorite. Most of the hike to Mt. Ida was above treeline, with increasingly stunning views. We loved all the pikas - I’d never seen so many before! We also spotted a ptarmigan with baby chicks, which were so well camouflaged it took a while to see them all in the alpine tundra.

The hikes were terrific and we rounded out our visit by driving Trail Ridge Road, stopping at the viewpoints, doing some short walks, and watching the elk. We definitely could have used more time, but we made the most of the time we had and we loved our visit to RMNP.