Rocky Mountain
Park 15
J & I met and still live in Colorado, so Rocky Mountain has become our “home park” for all intents and purposes. There has rarely been a summer we’re not hiking, camping, or backpacking somewhere there. Bear Lake or Gem Lake on the Estes Park side, North and East Inlet trails on the Grand Lake side, the Wild Basin entrance near Nederland are tried and true favorites. We’ve spent several birthdays backpacking here, including my 30th (his 31st) during COVID-19, when my sister and brother-in-law found a way to get to Colorado from Oregon to surprise me with a shared backpacking trip after the stay-at-home orders had been lifted.
I love so many things about this park. The moose, elk, coyote, and foxes that are abundant, especially in the Kawuneeche Valley. The high alpine lakes, the dry forests that smell of pine, the snowmelt rivers that are always swollen in the spring and run a more mellow pace during the autumn months. All the trails we’ve explored and the ones we haven’t yet but that I would love to. The memories it holds: Many moose encounters, stories shared late at night while sipping honey whiskey or tea from our mugs, gorgeous vistas.
It has also been a place of loss for us. Kawuneeche Valley (the Valley of Coyotes), close to Grand Lake, was ravaged by a terrible wildfire in 2020. Now, for the first couple miles on the North Inlet trail, we walk amid haunting blackened tree trunks. We’ve seen baby trees emerging and the ground cover is recovering over the last couple of summers, but there is a deep grief in knowing we won’t live long enough to see this trail the way it was before the fire. This is true of many places we’ve visited over the years: Waterton National Park in Alberta, Canada; the McKenzie River valley in Oregon. My levels of climate grief have only rose as the years pass. I often wonder how many other beloved forests, trails, cities, and parks may burn due to climate change during my lifetime.
May we act, vote, organize, and engage to protect these beautiful places and the Earth we all share and who gives us life.
