Estes Park, CO: June 2025

We spent 8 nights in Estes Park at Riverwood on Fall River hosted through AirBNB. Our home was a two bedroom log-cabin-like condo backing up to the Fall River- so our days and nights were filled with the sounds of rushing water.  It was located about a mile from downtown and fairly close to the Fall River entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park.

We discovered about 2 weeks before arriving, that, in addition to a park pass, a timed entry pass was required to enter RMNP between 9am and 2pm for all areas except Bear Lake and between 5am-7pm for Bear Lake. While we initially thought this may be a barrier, it turned out not to be (larger crowds at Bear Lake and we are always up early).

We did 3 hikes - all very different from each other - and ironically, for all of them we started with a destination in mind but ended up extending our hike further than planned.

Saturday: Ypsilon Lake (and beyond)

Sunday: Gem Lake and Balanced Rock

Thursday: Ute trail

Ypsilon was mostly a climb through the woods with very little views until you made it to the lakes at the top. After sitting at Ypsilon Lake for a few minutes we decided to continue up the trail to Spectacle Lakes. We should have recognized this was a bad idea immediately when the trail seemed poorly maintained with many fallen trees. It became very steep with a pretty significant rock scramble. We ended up turning around before we made it to the top.

Yoga on the trial

Before we were tired and still playing

Chipmunk Lake - just before Ypsilon lake

Ypsilon Lake

On the rock scramble to Spectacle Lakes - this was literally the trail

We picked Gem Lake Trail because it was supposed to be short (3 miles) and not in the main park, so we thought timed entry didn't apply (it did - but we arrived at 8:30 and there was no line). Gem Lake Trail was really breathtaking the entire way, with expansive views of Estes Park and multiple boulders. It was a fairly straightforward uphill climb for the first mile but pretty rocky to towards the top. The lake was a beautiful surprise (although crowded). Just behind the lake there was a sign for a 2.1m hike to Balanced Rock. We were feeling really good, checked All-trails to confirm we were not starting something similar to yesterday and decided to go for it.  It was a nice hike, although not as scenic as the one to Gem Lake and while Balanced Rock was nice, it wasn't much for 4 additional miles. Once we made it back to Gem Lake we started the rocky trek down and about 1/4 mile in Filip rolled his ankle. He managed to hobble the remaining 1.25 miles down the path on an uncomfortable, bruised and swollen ankle.

Along the trail to Gem Lake

At Gem Lake

Gem Lake

View from Balanced Rock Trail

Balanced Rock

On the way down.. not happy with a sprained ankle

We stayed off the trials until Thursday to rest Filip's ankle. On Thursday morning we made our way to the Alpine center in RMNP (about a 45 min drive from the entrance and ~12,000 ft) and then started down the Ute Trail. We had planned to do a short walk just to test Filip's ankle, but it seemed OK and the path was smooth (apart from some snow covered patches) so we ended up going around 3.75 miles before we turned around.

Ute trail was really cold at 7:30am

Watching the mule deer (not shown) in the distance

We also wanted to test our new skills of fishing and horseback riding which we did on Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning, respectively. We fished in the Big Thompson River, continuing our training on moving water fishing, and our Kirks Mountain Adventures guide was Robby from North Carolina. We caught a couple of small speckled trout and got to practice walking through the rapids in waders.

Filip showing off his first catch

Micki's (only) catch

Our horses were Diesel and Rebel. We did the 3 hour trail ride and were shocked to learn that our Wrangler, Erin had no prior horseback riding experience before National Park Gateway Stables about a month ago. The horses, however, were the most well-trained that we had ridden in CO (or maybe we were just more comfortable)- and Erin was great.

Filip on Rebel, Micki on Diesel

Diesel was a beautiful horse

During the ride Erin told us that some of the best views were along the drive through the park from the Fall River entrance, which we had not done yet so Thursday evening we took an ~2hr drive through the park - she was correct- the views were pretty incredible.

At 12,000ft in RMNP

This guy walked right in front of our car and then posed for pictures just on the edge of the road

We ate most of meals at home but did enjoy a few meals at The Wapiti - mostly because it was just down the street from our AirBnB, but it was also along the river with outdoor seating.  The food was mostly pub-style and not bad (Blue cheese burger with Fig Jam was a clear winner). We had lunch at the bar at the Stanley hotel one afternoon- for was OK, but not great.

Filip making sure we were well fed