Lodging

From hiking and picnicking, to fishing and horseback riding, to simply enjoying a scenic drive along Trail Ridge Road (the highest continuous paved highway in North America), there’s so much to see and do in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. One way to fully immerse in the natural beauty in the park is to overnight in one of its campgrounds.

High-alpine highway affords stellar mountain views in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Last summer my family took our pop-up camper to Grand Lake, Colorado, to enter Rocky Mountain National Park on its less-touristy western side. We indeed drove Trail Ridge Road (which peaks at 12,183 feet) toward the eastern side of the park to set up camp at Moraine Park Campground.

With 245 sites, there’s lots of room at this particular campground for tents and RVs. We picked it because it’s one of two for which you can make reservations; three other campgrounds are first-come/first-serve.

Like most National Park campgrounds, Moraine Park is rustic; there are no electric, water or sewer hook-ups. There is plenty of fabulous forest and shady areas, as well as some open meadows, where we spotted deer, butterflies, chipmunks and other critters.

There’s a free shuttle bus that runs from Moraine Park to Bear Lake, a very popular place for nature walks; a myriad of more difficult trails also start from Bear Lake. In the evenings, campers can gather for 45-minute talks from park rangers at the campground amphitheater.

Fees for camping at Moraine Park are $20/site/night; plus there’s a $20 automobile fee to enter the park (valid for 7 consecutive days). In an effort to stimulate summer vacations at National Parks, the government is waiving all entrance fees on three weekends in the coming months: June 20-21, July 18-19 and August 15-16. I hope it does indeed encourage more families to get out there and enjoy Rocky Mountain National Park — it’s certainly a favorite spot of mine.

Photo courtesy National Park Service.