I was blessed this June to have the opportunity to visit one of America’s most iconic national parks: Rocky Mountain National Park. It was everything I expected and more: lush meadows, tall evergreen forests, dramatic rock formations, rising mountain peaks, rushing waterfalls and a serene alpine lake. I only visited for the day and did one hike: the 10.8 miles, out and back East Inlet Trail starting at Grand Lake to Lone Pine Lake. Here’s everything you need to know about this trail!

Why Take East Inlet Trail?

If there’s one hike to take at Rocky Mountain National Park and you’re up for the challenge, East Inlet Trail is it! Granted take my recommendation with a grain of salt as this is the only trail I’ve hiked in this park. Nevertheless I was extremely fulfilled as I felt that it was very representative of the Rockies as a whole. It is extremely scenic and takes you along a variety of changing environments so that you’re never looking at the same thing for more than 20 minutes. It’s peaceful and pristine. It’s challenging but rewarding. Although it is a hard hike, it does not require any special equipment like microspikes/snowshoes for the snow or trekking poles as other alpine hikes in the Rockies might.

Best of all, it’s not crowded whatsoever! National parks in the peak seasons can be so crowded to the point that it detracts from the experience of being in nature. And I get it, we’re all here to see the same thing. I was shocked to find that for how beautiful the trail was it was sparsely trekked by humans. We maybe ran into 10 or so groups of people throughout the 5 and a half hours we were on the trail.

Good to know before you go

How to get there

Rocky Mountain National Park is only a 1.5-2 hour drive from Denver, which makes it super accessible from the city! The trailhead for East Inlet starts at Grand Lake. You do not need to go to the Grand Lake Visitor Center to gain entry for the trail but there is a gift shop and bathrooms there.

Get the Pass and Timed Entry Online

In 2023, Rocky Mountain National Park was the 5th most popular national park in the US! From May 24th to mid October (2024) you will need to get a timed entry pass online if you want to arrive to the park between the hours of 9AM and 2PM. 60% of these passes are released on the 1st of every month for the following month (e.g. passes released on June 1st are for July 1st-31st). Good news for those of us who plan last minute: the other 40% of the passes are released at 7PM (mountain time) the night before you want to go. They do not immediately sell out in my experience but definitely aim to be on the website at 7PM.

Sign up for a recreation.gov account first in order to buy a pass. The timed entry reservation is $2 and the park pass/entrance fee is $30. You only need one pass for one vehicle (not per person). You have a two hour window from your reservation to arrive to the park.

Trail Details

This is a moderate to challenging hike. It’s almost 11 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1795ft. I completed this hike in 5.5 hours with about a 20 minute lunch break at the top. I started at 10am and finished at 4:30pm. The trail itself is very well paved and beautifully maintained but there are no distance markers so you might want to download the AllTrails map.

Lone Pine Lake itself is over 9500 feet in elevation. Consider that it might be harder to breathe the higher you go up!

Near the top of the hike where you start to see snow is also where the trail starts to get muddy. There are also a few small streams that you may have to cross which make it inevitable that your shoes and socks will get wet.

Weather

I’ll give you the moral of the story first: be prepared for anything! I went in early June and I experienced a whole range of weather conditions. The forecast predicted rain for the early afternoon but when we arrived at the trailhead it was so sunny we decided to leave our rain jackets in the car. At first the hike was sunny and hot. As we gained elevation the temperature dropped, the sky turned gray and we started to hear booming thunder. We rushed to the top where we were met with snow on the ground and a light drizzle (I put on my long sleeve shirt). The rain stopped until we reached the final mile and picked back up again, this time to include hail! By the time we arrived to the parking lot it was sunny again.

Wild Life

Make sure to keep your eyes peeled for wildlife! We saw some grey squirrels, a few chipmunks and a long-tailed weasel!

What to Bring

• Water – This might be obvious but there’s no potable drinking water along the way. Unless you have a water filtration system, do NOT drink the mountain water for risk of bacteria and disease
• Lunch and snacks – You’ll be doing 5 hours of straight cardio and you will get hungry! Lone Pine Lake is a great spot to stop for lunch.
• Bug Spray – This is ESSENTIAL!!! The amount of mosquitos at the last third of the hike shocked me – a cloud of mosquitos will swarm you the second you stand still to take a picture. Once the trail starts to follow a stream, the mosquitos will start to show up, which makes sense because of the humidity but I had no idea that mosquitos lived in such cool temperatures.
• Light jacket/ long sleeve shirt – Once you start gaining elevation it will get cooler. There was still plenty of snow lying around Lone Pine Lake and if you stop for a few minutes for lunch, you will feel the temperature drop
• Hat – While there’s tree cover on most of the hike, it can still get pretty hot
• Sunscreen – always!
• Water proof shoes (or shoes you don’t mind getting wet and muddy) – the trail follows a stream for the last third of the hike and sometimes the trail becomes the stream. You will do many river crossings and will likely need to step in water.
• Wool socks – these are the most comfortable socks for when your shoes get wet
• Rain jacket – The weather is extremely fickle in this alpine environment. If the forecast says it will rain, bring a jacket!

Photo story time!

The first mile or two of the hike is relatively flat. The first major landmark you’ll come across is an expansive flooded plain that reflects Mount Craig behind it on its waters perfectly. You’ll follow the edge of this river for almost the whole time. You’ll walk through a forrest, across wooden bridges and when your surroundings become primarily rock, you’ll have arrived at the base of the mountain where you’ll begin your ascent.

At some points the river becomes extremely powerful and loud. The higher up you ascend up the mountain, the water and the trail become more intertwined and the trail gets muddy.

At the end of the trail is the serene Lone Pine Lake, surrounded by snow. We stopped for lunch here and were the only people there!

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The East Inlet Trail to Lone Pine Lake was a wonderfully challenging introduction to the Rockies and it inspires me to go back to see more. I’d best describe this hike as a jam-packed, ever-changing nature-adventure. Let me know your favorite must-do hikes in the Rockies in the comments!

❤️ Valerie 🏔🌲