Trekking Through the Southeastern Edge of Rocky Mountain National Park

Early in the morning, after Mar and I thank Jeanne for her hospitality, we headed out of Denver on Interstate 25 North.  In the vicinity of Longmont, we headed west on CO-66 to the US-36 North.  We drove most of the morning to get to Fall River Visitor Center, not too far away from the town of Estes Park on US-34.  At the visitor center, we picked up a day hiking guide to Rocky Moutain National Park.  With plenty of sunshine left in the day, we picked Calypso Cascades, a short, moderately difficult hike. 

Moments later we were backtracking to Estes Park to catch CO-7 South towards Allenspark.   We turned off CO-7 at Wild Basin Road which lead us to  Wild Basin Trailhead the starting point for our hike.   The trail followed the banks of the North St. Vrain River which took us past Copeland Falls before steadily climbing up towards Calypso Cascades.  All throughout the hike, we were protected from the sun's rays by ample shade cast by the treeline.  We cooled our sore feet in shallow pools of mountain water at Calypso Cascades before hiking back to the trailhead. 

Off of the CO-7 North, we detoured at Lily Lake take in the views  Afterwards, we headed back to Estes Park for a late lunch and were pleasantly surprised at a group of elk congregating at a strip mall. 

More than half of the day was gone and I didn't want to be driving on alpine roads in the dark so we pressed westward on the Trail Ridge Road.