Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park

One of the best things to do while in Estes Park is to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. The beauty of the place is reason enough to visit. A drive on any of the roads through Rocky will take your breath away. Some of our most memorable moments of the trip were just driving around Rocky, taking in all the beauty the park has to offer. We also enjoyed viewing all the wildlife in the park. There’s plenty of wildlife to find in Rocky, especially elk. My husband and I loved spending our evenings sitting on the ridge above the Sheep Lakes, listening to the elk below bugling while watching the beautiful sunset.

Quick Tips:

Check out the many Estes Park websites for upcoming events and possible coupons or package deals.

Best Way To Get Around:

The best way to get around Rocky Mountain National Park would be by rental car.

The best way to get around Estes Park once you're there would be to walk. There are many public-parking places that are free of charge.

My husband and I stayed in the unit called the Carriage House. This place is just beautiful! The owners, Annie and Craig, have gone all out to make sure your visit there is a pleasant one. The personal touches in the place are really wonderful and they have thought of everything that you may need during you stay, from the Crocs shoes to wear to the hot tub (which by the way, we loved the shoes so much we both bought a pair for ourselves) to backpacks and coolers to use while out in the park. One of the many things we were impressed with was how clean the place was. It was immaculate!

The Carriage House has everything for the perfect getaway. It has an outdoor hot tub and a soaking tub indoors for relaxing. There are even aromatherapy scent packages for using in the hot tub and bubble bath and candles for a romantic soak in the soaking tub. If you choose to do any cooking or grilling, everything you need is there from the full kitchen and gas grill to spices you may need. It has a comfortable couch and chair with ottoman to sit back and relax and watch a little TV that’s even equipped with a Direct TV package.

For that perfect romantic getaway, I would highly recommend Annie’s Mountain Retreat. For more info, check out their website: http://www.anniesmountainretreat.com.

This place is THE place for breakfast. The food is great and the wait staff is very friendly. The place is also really clean, which is always a plus. The only trouble with eating here is deciding what to have. The selection of items is great - who knew there were so many things and so many ways to cook breakfast?

I would recommend going early, before the normal breakfast crowd eats, because the place gets packed. They do, however, get you in and seated pretty fast considering the number of people that all want breakfast there.

This place does have great pizza, with a wide variety of things to choose from on your pizza. There are even different sauces to choose from. We choose a pizza with garlic, and it was great!!! The place is nice and has a great location on the river. The waiter we had, I hate to say, was awful. He was not very friendly and very, very slow, and I mean slooooow. It took forever to get anything, and he’d forget things we ordered. I even made sure that I had my credit card ready to give him as soon as he brought the bill because I didn’t know how long he’d be coming back to pick it up. The pizza was great, though, and perhaps the other wait staff is better, but I’d do carryout next time.

A great place for pizza! We ordered carry-out pizza from Chicago's Best. The people working here are friendly, and the pizza is great! You're provided with plates and napkins for carry-out, which is really nice. They even offer you containers of crushed red pepper and parmesan cheese to add to your pizza if you choose so.

If you want great Italian food, this is the place to go. The place is really small, so I would recommend reservations. We had heard about how great this place was and had to try it. We also had heard how packed it gets but we lucked out and arrived at 4pm and got right in. Although we didn’t have to wait to get in, this place would be worth the wait! I ordered the lasagna bianco. I think that was what it was called. It was lasagna with alfredo sauce and it was incredible. My husband ordered pasta with seafood and it was great too! Be sure to order the garlic bread even through you get rolls with your dinner. The garlic bread is some of the best I’ve had. The wait staff is friendly and very efficient. This place is one not to be missed! This will be a place we always visit when in Estes Park!

I wanted to take a tour of the Stanley Hotel because the place is beautiful and may be haunted. The tour is $10 a person and lasts about 2 hours. The tour is also worth every penny!!!

The tour guide we had was great; he’s one of those people who you can tell really enjoys their job. He was very knowledgeable on the history of the hotel and a lot of fun to listen to.

We toured some of the different rooms of the hotel, such as the dining and billiard rooms. As we toured the different rooms, it felt almost as though I had gone back in time. I looked around in awe as I imagined what it must have been like long ago. The tour even included information about the different rooms and areas that are supposed to be haunted. We were even allowed to tour one of the guest rooms that are supposed to be haunted. Jim Carey is said to have stayed in this room during the taping of "Dumb and Dumber" and have asked to be moved to another room - he didn’t care which one. To this day, he will not talk about what happened to him in that room. We were also told about Stephen King writing "The Shining" there and what areas were used in the TV miniseries.

If you love old historic places and/or haunted places, be sure to take this tour!

My husband and I really enjoyed driving and hiking around Rocky Mountain National Park to view all the wildlife. We were in Rocky during the elk rut (mating season) and what is called the Gold Rush, which is when all the aspen trees are in their fall color. Being that my husband and I are wildlife enthusiasts, we really enjoyed seeing the elk, especially during the rut. We often viewed the male elk (bulls) locking their antlers together and not fighting, just kind of pushing each other around. The bull elk also bugle during this time to try to proclaim their dominance and to attract the females. The bugling of a bull elk is a distinctive sound, one that’s hard to describe. It’s somewhat of a haunting sound that starts off deep and resonant, then becomes a high-pitched squeal that ends in a series of grunts. It’s an incredible sound to experience. We spent one evening just sitting on a ridge above the Sheep Lakes listening to the elk bugling in the meadow below. It was a great way to spend the evening, listening to the elk and watching the beautiful sunset.

The elk are very abundant in Rocky and can been seen just driving around the park. The park visitor center provides information on the best areas to view the elk. Be sure to bring a camera, as the elk are often so close that you can get some amazing photos. We spent most of our time in the park just viewing and taking pictures of the elk.