We loved this park so much. If you haven’t been here yet you NEED to go and plan at least a week. This park has been described as the Disney World of the National Parks, I couldn’t agree more. There is so much to see and do, you can waste months here and still have more to come back to see.

The drive was foggy with thick puffy black clouds rolling. Even though it was cloudy the views were still amazing!

This little guy was stalking us while we eat lunch on the tailgate of the truck. I wish you could hear all the sounds he was making, it was hilarious.

We never go hiking without supplies, water, rain gear, first aid and emergency kit, and snacks. We were prepared for rain, as a quick shower is very common, but we were not prepared for hail!

First we stopped in the Moraine Park Visitor Center to get trail recommendations from a Ranger. She recommended a few trails that were very scenic, great for pictures.

We decided on the Fern Lake Trail with an elevation gain of 1,620 ft, elevation total was 11,095 ft. It was an easy hike with a very gradual elevation increase, we really just wanted a good experience with great pictures. I think that’s exactly what we got with this trail. It was spectacular, awe inspiring, and majestic!

We hiked to “The Pool,” which I assume gets it’s name from a much lower water level than this day. Pools of water are usually calm and peaceful with little to no movement, today the water was raging!
After sitting a spell and taking in the beauty, we chose to walk back the way we came, it was shorter than continuing the loop to the Falls. Just as we were fixing to leave it starts to rain….and Jacob runs into a colleague from Shell, random small world. As they are talking the rain changes…I said,”man, this rain hurts!!!” Just then, we see the “rain” bouncing off everything. It was like being in a paintball war zone with no place to take cover. They said their goodbye and that’s when our gently stroll of a hike turned into a “high-tailing-it-outta-there” power-walk/running for cover. We eventually found an area for cover after about a mile of “ietchie-wa-wa!” Our cover was a nice boulder teepee, it was a perfect blessing. The pelleting last about 20-30 minutes total, when it changed back to rain we started power-walking to the truck.

I wish the weather would have been better. It was rainy and cold the rest of the day. Even with the horrible weather we still had a great time and loved our hikes. We can’t wait for the next time we visit Rocky Mountain National Park.