I managed to tag along on two of my good friends backpacking trip in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Nicole & Dave-The-Rave reserved (well in advance) the only campsite spot by Lake Verna on the less busy west side of the park.
Day 1 – Parking lot to Lake Verna campsite (Strava link for hiking details)
The trailhead of the East Inlet Trail starts from the east side of Grand Lake and works its way into the mountains. There are 5 lakes going into the valley and Lake Verna is the second one. It’s a beautiful trail hiking along the river and very gradual ascent. Since we had the same campspot for 2 nights I didn’t pack very light so the pack was heavy hiking up the first day and the pace was very “hygge”.
The weather in general was very mixed the whole trip which I like, it makes the scenery chance all the time so you experience something different even staying the same place for days. We got to the campsite and pitched the tents just before it started raining. Immediately we got a new campsite friend, a deer that kept coming by our camp for the 3 days. Maybe he was hoping for scraps but I got the sense that he felt more secure from other predators being around us…I could be wrong though.
Rave broke out the flyfishing rod and we spend the rest of the day fishing and cooking in camp.
(Click on pictures and read captions for more details).
Day 2 – Lake Verna to Fifth Lake and back (Strava link for hiking details)
Nic and I wanted to explore the valley and possibly get to one of the mountain passes. After a bucket full of coffee we all head up the valley. After reaching Spirit Lake, Rave decided to turn around and try to turn his no-fish-failure on the previous day into succes. Nic and I kept hiking deeper into the valley. Immediately after Lake Verna the trail becomes more rough (but still pretty good) and we had a sense that we would see wildlife at anytime. Ones we passed the fourth lake we could either go up to Boulder-Grand Pass or hike to the fifth lake. It was still very cloudy on the pass so we kept on going to the fifth lake. After the fourth lake it ascends above the treeline and Nic spotted two moose further up the game trail that we were hiking on. They spotted us at the same time and we stayed for a moment then moving a bit closer and stayed there, maybe 200 metres away from them we stopped. It was a male and female and they started coming down towards us. It was my first real moose encounter in the wild (which is crazy given the places I’ve been) so I was a little nervous but watching their demeanor I calmed down, they didn’t look aggressive at all. They kept coming down the game trail towards us until maybe 30-40 meters away from us they veered off to the side and passed us down the hill so we could continue. I really got the feeling that they recognised where we were going and they came down to let us pass, amazing experience!
We went up to the fifth lake which is very beautiful surrounded by mountain tops and took a food break (Nic – thanks for the amazing salami sandwich!). We considered wether to continue up the pass or hike back down, and as we were conversing it started thundering so we made the wise decision and went back. On our hike back it started clearing and we could see all the mountain peaks – amazing. There’s a beautiful beach on the east side of Lake Verna and right as we reached it the sun came out so it was a perfect opportunity to take of the shoes, dry our stuff and put our feet in the water. We agreed there was 3 possible scenarios for how we would find Dave-The-Rave: 1) Happy having caught trout, 2) Depressed in his tent because he didn’t, 3) Molested by a chipmunk. Luckily we came back to scenario 1). He had caught 4 brook trouts (we believe) that we cooked up and ate, they tasted AMAZING!
(Click on pictures and read captions for more details).
Day 3 – Lake Verna to parking lot (Strava link for hiking details)
We woke up to an amazing sunrise and had coffee by the lake before packing down our stuff and hiking back. There was this mist almost dancing on top of the lake, it was pretty amazing. Here’s a couple shots…and check out the video on my Strava where you can see the mist moving on the lake.
Here is the full trip on maps…
Through Mountains 