Ouzel Lake-Rocky Mountain National Park

This July we celebrated 12 years of wedded bliss. In true “on the go” fashion we did so on a week long whirlwind trip to Colorado where we enjoyed lots of hiking, animal spotting, camping and we even took in a fantastic concert at the iconic Red Rocks amphitheater.

One of the first hikes we went on was to Ouzel lake pictured to the right.

A little disclaimer, to get into Rocky Mountain National park at any entrance you either need to arrive before timed entry begins/after it stops, or get a timed entry pass online. The timed entry passes are limited and only become available for the next day at 7pm the day before though. So after driving around trying to find a signal and waiting with baited breath to push the buy button at exactly the right moment, only to have an error code indicating all passes were sold out pop up, we resorted to setting an alarm.

We made it into the Wild Basin entrance which is at the Southeast edge of the park to hike to Ouzel Lake before timed entry began at 9am. I will note that the different entrances have different timed entry times as well, this one starts ticketed entry at 9am others are 5am, yikes. We took along our single burner cook stove and had our breakfast of oatmeal and fruit with instant coffee in a parking spot just inside the entrance. There is potable water at this entrance just inside the gate so we filled all of our available vessels as we always do when a water source is available. This is “dirt bag car camping” as we have lovingly come to call our style of travel, at its finest. Get what you need when it’s available as you never know the next time it will be! Little did we know the parking area for the hikes we were interested in were actually several miles further down the road. We watched car after car pass by and wondered where they were going since we thought we had scored the only parking spots. It finally clicked as we studied the map a bit more and realized the trailhead was not accessible from where we were parked wasting time. We started driving further on to reach the actual trailhead and arrived at the lot with dwindling hope to find that every single parking spot was full…except for one, which by some miracle our comically small rental vehicle could actually fit in.

We were thanking our lucky stars for that little roller skate of a vehicle now! Seriously look at that little bugger, isn’t it tiny? One of the extremely helpful park rangers that was turning all the SUV’s and giant vehicles away said, “wait a minute, follow me” and directed us in right up tight to this little tree. We chalked that up to anniversary trip luck and headed to the trail head. The park ranger presence at this particular park was awesome. There were rangers or volunteers at many of the trailheads and in the visitor center and they were all extremely helpful and knowledgeable. Did I mention we were there the week of the 4th of July? It was busy to say the least. After using the bathroom and filling up our day packs with snacks and topping off water (all standard operating procedure before heading out on a hike) we headed to the trailhead where we consulted a ranger on what hike to do in the amount of daylight we had left and headed out.

Along the hike we saw the three falls listed on the trailhead sign Copeland, Calypso and Ouzel. We also saw a marmot, two adolescent moose (thought this was a bear at first when only seeing the dark colored hump of a back), chipmunk, many wildflowers and of course stunning mountain views. It is always important to respect nature when embarking on any outdoor adventures. This means that all flora and fauna is admired from a distance and it is always treated with respect. A lot of times people become desensitized it seems, thinking that these are not wild animals/plants but they are and need to be treated as such. A moose would have just as easy of a time telling you what’s up as a bear or a patch of poison ivy would, so please, appreciate from a distance and give them the space they deserve. We are walking through THEIR home after all. Thank you for attending my Ted talk… moving on.

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The trail all the way to Ouzel lake and back amounted to about 10 miles so this was a big hike day. The foot traffic really dropped off after the last waterfall though, so we only saw a small handful of people the rest of the way to the lake. We were expecting the teal blue green color lake you associate so often with “alpine lakes” in your mind but it appeared to be like any other lake we had seen back home in Michigan. Main difference of course being the surrounding Rocky Mountains and subsequent glacial flow which Michigan definitely does not have. Do not despair, we did find a teal colored lake, you will just have to subscribe and watch for another post to see which one it is. Rocky Mountain National Park is known for its animal sightings as well as stunning views and per the internet, over 300 miles of hiking trails. This hike definitely delivered on all cylinders and was not overly strenuous. We did this hike in early July and we were comfortable in a merino tee and lightweight hiking pants/shorts. I would recommend taking along a light windbreaker or jacket though as the shady areas as you climb higher can get a bit chilly.

We enjoyed trying a little sip of glacial water on our way back down and thankfully did not get sick. I wouldn’t suggest trying a sip out of any old body of water but this one seemed to be ok and so we risked it. Included in the gallery above is a beautiful mule deer that joined us at our campsite when we arrived back after this lovely hike. You can see the edge of our tent in the lower left hand corner for a distance comparison. A healthy reminder we are in their house. He happily munched his dinner as we ate ours, shells and cheese made on our single burner with some added summer sausage for protein. A quiet end to another amazing day on the go.