Estes Park

[anniemae]

Has anyone gone to Estes Park CO? Looking at a possible family trip but I know nothing about it. Is there a lot to do? It looks beautiful in pictures. Any info would be appreciates!

 

[GBRforWDW]

I’ll be there this weekend. I don’t go enough to know everything, but there certainly is a lot to do. Rocky Mountain National Park entrance is just west of town. They require park reservations to get into the park. Check the national parks website for specific details.

Lots of local restaurants. The Stanley Hotel, featured in the Jack Nicklaus movie The Shining is there. Lakes in the area are beautiful, lots of walking/hiking trails available too!

I found a site that offers Jeep tours. I’d kinda like to do that so I didn’t have to focus on the road! But most of the tours are around $100 per person.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

It is a small town just on the east side of Rocky Mountains National Park, and it serves as a main gateway point to getting into the park. There is kind of a central street for tourists, with lots of restaurants, shops, and some independent hotels. There's a little stream that runs along behind some of the restaurants. Other than using the town as a springboard into RMNP, I don't know that there's all that much. When we were there, there was a weekend festival of some sort, which we walked to from our hotel and enjoyed some free music. RMNP is very popular and crowded, so by virtue of proximity, so is Estes Park. Park reservations are required now. It's been nearly a decade since I've been, but even then (and even in off season), parts of the park were crowded enough that you had to park and use the park shuttle system to get to trailheads. My personal opinion is that I wouldn't stay more than a night there, as part of a larger road trip seeing more things in the area. For scenic places, RMNP is great, but there is a ton to choose from in that part of the country, and I prefer to get where it's much less crowded.

 

[Her Dotness]

My personal opinion is that I wouldn't stay more than a night there, as part of a larger road trip seeing more things in the area. For scenic places, RMNP is great, but there is a ton to choose from in that part of the country, and I prefer to get where it's much less crowded.

I agree despite not having been in that area for ages.

My family used to vacation in the area when I was a prehistoric kid. I never thought there was much to do in Estes Park unless you're into touristy shopping, bars and seeing the few sites like The Stanley.

We used to drive through the RMNP on Trail Ridge Road, spectacular scenery at several points, to get to the Grand Lake and Granby area where there was much more to do. Grand Lake particularly was lovely for boating, swimming and the like. However, I learned a few years ago that the wildfire that came far too close to Grand Lake Village devastated the gorgeous surrounding forests. Most likely, nothing much remains of those beautiful pines and other evergreens that I loved seeing.

We'd sometimes stay a night alongside the Big Thompson River just east of Estes Park (loved being lulled to sleep by the river noise), go on to Grand Lake for a few nights, and then head back to Denver and south to Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak.

Lots more to see and do around Colorado Springs, IMO. In fact, I'd advise going there instead. Manitou Springs is at the RM foothills side of the Springs and has long been a quirky place to stay with various things to do and see.

Gorgeous country in the Colorado Rockies. I'd love to return sometime.

 

[glamdring269]

I like Estes Park. I mean it’s kind of like the Gatlinburg of the RMNP in a way but that’s all relative. We would go back.

 

[EACarlson]

I've been there twice in the last 5 years. It's pretty much just the Stanley and the Park. If you're looking for anything other than that to do I'd go the hour and half back to Denver and/or Boulder. It is very cool though to see a herd of elk just walk through downtown.

 

[tasha99]

We went there right before the pandemic and stayed at The Stanley Hotel (and we went to Timberline Lodge earlier the same year--two The Shining hotel vacations). It was sort of an add on couple of days to a business trip to Denver. We mostly just walked around up in the mountains on trails for the less physically active (nothing steep or anything). I enjoyed it, but one night and 2 days was enough.

 

[nw6675]

I've been there twice in the last 5 years. It's pretty much just the Stanley and the Park. If you're looking for anything other than that to do I'd go the hour and half back to Denver and/or Boulder. It is very cool though to see a herd of elk just walk through downtown.

I completely agree with this.

 

[trip]

Last week we stayed, with our daughter, son in law and 2 grandkids 5&7, at SunOutdoorsRockyMountains.com.
Fun for all ages. They rent mountain bikes,SUP's and Kayaks. Lots of different types of rentals. It's about 5 minutes from Grand Lake.

 

[GBRforWDW]

As I mentioned earlier, we were going to Estes over Memorial weekend so I have a bit more to share. The downtown area is fun but crowded. If you’re staying anywhere close to downtown, and you’re there on a weekend, I’d recommend walking. They have lots of free and pay parking lots, but so many people trying to find a parking spot. Most of the shops are either ice cream, taffy/candy, clothing or Christmas related along the main road.

Some other things outside downtown that I saw were go carts and mini golf, nearby lakes, camping, hiking etc.

For Rocky Mountain National Park, they have 2 types of passes. One of them allows access to bear lake and a couple other spots and is required for entry all day while the other pass which just allows you into the park and can access any road not taking you to bear lake, is required to enter the park between 9am and 2pm. For some days, you can go to rec.gov and get your pass early. If those sell out or it’s for a busy weekend, you may have to wait until 5pm mountain time the day before to get your pass. Either way, the pass is $2. The car lines to get into the park can get kinda long. I think we waited close to 30 minutes at 11am. Looked like afternoon could be longer, possibly as the park opens up to non reservations. The trip up to bear lake was totally worth it though. Great views!



We were actually staying in Loveland, so only went into Estes one day. It was fun, but exhausting! Thin mountain air can be rough.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

Has anyone gone to Estes Park CO? Looking at a possible family trip, but I know nothing about it. Is there a lot to do? It looks beautiful in pictures. Any info would be appreciates!

RMNP is one of my favorite non-Disney vacation locations. There is so much wildlife, plus it's conveniently located near Denver Airport. I always stay in Estes Park when I visit RMNP.