If you're planning a trip to Colorado you MUST put Lake Estes in your plans. This place is so beautiful being the gateway to the Rocky Mountains. We stayed at Manor RV Park for 5 days.
This campground was ok. Not great and not horrible. My biggest complaint would be that felt like some campers were permanent residents. We asked and were told there were no permanent residents but there were permanent campers/trailers that owners visited seasonally. Other than this it had a very pretty view of a river and occasionally elk would visit the campground.
Being right outside the Rocky Mountains we did a lot of hiking. There are a lot of lake hikes. A LOT. The best we did was Bear Lake.
It's also the most popular and so very busy. But it's an easy hike, only half a mile round trip, around a beautiful lake with Long's Peak as a focal point. Long's Peak is the mountain that you can see on the back of the US quarter. As a matter of fact there is a point on the hike where you can see the inspiration for the painting the quarter is based on.
The same day that we did Bear Lake we also did Alberta Falls. I love waterfalls and this one was enjoyable. The hike is only a little over a half a mile and not strenuous.
At the falls we saw this little guy. He was friendly and not scared of all the people. I couldn't resist taking his picture.
An important piece of advice is to plan for parking. Parking is an issue in this part of the Rockies so parking lots fill up quickly. They do have shuttles that run to and from parking and I suggest using them.
One of the best, if most strenuous hikes we did was Bierstadt Lake. This hike is less than 2 miles but it's nearly straight up a mountain. That's the bad news, the good news is you will experience some of the best views on this hike.
And then once you get up to the lake it's a very peaceful setting to sit and catch your breath and enjoy even more beautiful views.
It was at Estes Lake that we finally saw some major wildlife, mostly elk.
Another interesting thing to do in Estes Park is to visit the Stanley Hotel.
This hotel was the inspiration for Stephen King's book The Shining. Story goes he and his wife stayed at this hotel in 1973 and for some reason they were the only guests. As Stephen King explored the hotel he claims to have encountered several ghosts. He went home and wrote The Shining. While this is not the hotel that was used for the movie it was used for the TV miniseries that Stephen King produced. We explored the hotel but did not see or experience and paranormal activity.
Here's a picture of the infamous room 217. This door did give me a creepy feeling.
One of my favorite things about this area of the country was the aspen tree forests. I absolutely love these trees and so wish they could survive in Florida.
The last thing we did before leaving Estes Park was to bike around Estes Lake. This is a four and a half mile bike ride and has the most beautiful views.
Hercules was curious about the geese.
