Rocky Mountain National Park Camping Recap
We recently purchased a new travel trailer (after selling an old motorhome) and we’re so excited to get it out this summer to explore again! Our family just loves being outside, so getting away into the wilderness is the perfect summer activity for us.
We had reservations in the Moraine Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park, which are tricky to get! You have to get them about six months in advance, and they go quickly! So we were really looking forward to this trip.
We arrived Thursday afternoon and got settled into our site – B Loop, Site 211. We typically try to stay in the C Loop, because it has incredible views of the meadow in the valley below and the mountains in the distance. But we took what we could get! We had never stayed in the B Loop, and site 211 ended up being a pretty beautiful site. We had neighbors on both sides, but a great view of the meadow and a huge place for the kids to play with big rocks to climb on. There were even enough trees for us to hang our hammocks, which kept the kids busy while we were at our site.
When we came into the park, the ranger let us know that during the week they’d had bears coming through, and they’d received food rewards so we needed to be extra careful – which is exactly what I didn’t want to hear!! But happily we didn’t see any bears during our visit. On our first night we did have a coyote trot right next to our campsite though! Our neighbors had seen him and shown a flashlight on him thankfully, so I picked up our dog and headed to the trailer pretty quickly. He didn’t really seem to want to bother us though, and he didn’t come back the next night, which made me very happy.
Unfortunately we had some rainy weather while we were there, so we didn’t do much on Thursday when we arrived other than settle into the trailer and our site. The kids had fun playing with the hammock, and when it was raining we played some games inside. We had planned to make camp pies for dinner, but the rain spoiled that plan. If you haven’t heard of a camp pie, it’s a sandwich press that you put in the fire to cook. We love to fill them with ground beef mixed with tomato paste and add mozzarella, they’re like crispy, delicious pizzas. You can also make dessert camp pies (using pie filling, or whatever else sounds good), which we were going to try this time and didn’t get to because of the rain, I’ll give you my report on them next time! We thought we were going to have to make s’mores over the stove in the trailer, but the skies cleared up just in time for a spectacular evening and we were able to make a fire for some delicious s’mores.
The next morning we wanted to get out and explore, so we headed to the Alluvial Fan. It’s an area where we had been about four years ago, but the floods a few years ago totally devastated the area. The parking lots turned into boulder fields and it took a while to get it back in good shape. So it was nice to be able to go back with the kids. We hiked up the east side first, which is a super easy and short hike, and results in a beautiful view of the waterfall and boulder area. The kids were loving the water, and the other side looked fun to hike, so we hiked over to the west parking lot (we had to go on the road a little bit) and hiked up that side too. That side was a lot more rocky and had big boulders, which the kids absolutely loved! They were scrambling up rocks that weren’t even in their path, they just couldn’t get enough of it. We finally convinced them to come down and headed back over to the east side and back to the parking lot.
We stopped at the trailer for a quick lunch while our three-year-old took a quick nap, and then headed into Estes Park to wander around a little bit. We walked along the creek side of the shops (much less busy, even on a busy summer day) and picked up some yummy ice cream at one of the shops on the main street. Then it was back to the camp site for dinner!
One of our favorite meals while camping is salmon over the fire. We have a tripod to cook food over the fire, so we can regulate it a little better than the normal grate, and the salmon gets a little crispy and delicious (of course we cook it in butter!) While we prepped dinner the kids made some friends with new neighbors that had arrived, and they played together well into the night until bedtime. We had brought glow bracelets, which helped being able to follow them around in the dark. (Of course this momma is thinking about the bears and coyotes as they played, but everyone stayed close and didn’t get eaten!)
The next morning we packed up the trailer and headed back home. It was a great getaway, and a forced break from our phones because they don’t have data service in the park. I can’t recommend this campground enough, it’s simply one of the best we’ve ever camped at. But you have to get your reservations early!
Get out there and explore with your families, and let me know where some of your favorite family campgrounds!
Like this review? Check out my travel guide with links to other articles like this!
https://thornton.macaronikid.com/guides/59547db650443957cb92485f/family-travel-guide
