Join Us In Rocky Mountain National Park

In celebration of the collective energy created by all the Moments shared on the Meet the Moment site, we are happy to announce CLIF Bar’s Day of Action on October 1st. As part of CLIF Bar’s Day of Action, the Center will be hosting a trail building day in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

We invite and encourage you, your family and your friends to come out and join our CLIF Bar’s Day of Action event. Enjoy a great day with other adventurers as we work to protect the places we play. Please email dean@LNT.org to register for our CLIF Bar’s Day of Action Event.

If you haven’t created a moment yet it’s not too late. Go to www.MeettheMoment.com. Remember when you upload your first photo, CLIF Bar donates $5 to the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.

Dream Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park - Photo by B. Lawhon

"We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope."

- Wallace Stegner, the Wilderness Letter

When the rules get broken

I went for a hike with my family yesterday in Rocky Mountain National Park to celebrate Mother's Day. It was a perfect day for a hike - 60's, sunny, a few clouds and no wind. As we hiked, we began to notice tracks in the snow that looked like those of a coyote. I'm no Tom Brown so I wasn't sure but they were fun for our son to follow. We hiked to an abandoned mine in the Park, found a nice spot for a picnic and had the place to ourselves. We only saw a few other people on the trails all day. However, on our way back to the trailhead, we heard a group coming from behind us. I turned around an noticed they had a dog on a leash. That explained the tracks in the snow but begged the question as to whether or not the dog owner knew that dogs aren't allowed on Park trails.

The dog owner was moving pretty quickly past us and I knew I'd only have one shot at talking to him about the dog. My initial thought was to just tell him dogs weren't allowed. But as he got closer I changed tact and said, "Howdy. Do you hike here much?" expecting him to say that he was new to the Park, which would allow me the opportunity to tell him about the Park's rule on dogs and why they weren't allowed. Much to my surprise, he told me he "hiked in the Park a lot." To which I said, "I didn't know dogs were allowed on Park trails [playing dumb]." His response got me, "Dogs aren't allowed on the trails but they're [the National Park Service] pretty cool about it this time of year. It's just not a big deal." At this point, I really didn't know what to say. Especially since this guy knew the rules but blatantly chose to break them.

This is the guy whose selfish actions impact the rest of us. Don't be this guy...

Rocky Mountain National Park expanding Long's Peak Parking.

Having spent each summer and the early part of my adult life living a stone's throw from the base of Long's Peak, the tallest peak in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, I'm no stranger to the user dynamic of that area.

If you were to park it on the bench at the trailhead, you would notice a particular pattern established over the course of any day.
3:00am: The first wave of eager hikers arrive, headlamps emblazoned, they head up the trail at a decent clip, determined to reach summit and be back in time for breakfast.
5:00am: Silence.
6:00am: The second wave of hikers arrive. These folks, equally eager, share ambitions of summiting, as well as Chasm Lake, Granite Pass, or any other myriad of stops along the way.
8:00am: The third wave of hikers, which come at a steady roll until late morning, begin the casual, exploratory hiking in the area. Most don't plan on reaching the summit, or they intend to set up camp at the Boulder Field.
10:30am: First group begins to arrive back at the parking lot.
1:00 pm: Second group begins arriving back at the parking lot.
2:00 pm: The skies open up. IT'S STORMING! Run for your car!
2:30 - 5:00pm: Folks arrive back, and the parking lot clears out, save a few overnight parkers.

Granted, you would notice overall - especially on a good weather day - that the parking lot in Long's Peak reaches near capacity. There is a line of cars parked down the access road leading to the trailhead. The lot is, truly, maxed out.

This is perhaps one reason behind today's headline in the Daily Camera: "Rocky Mountain National Park Proposes More Long's Peak Parking." I suggest taking a read through, as it only begins to hint at a larger picture of how increased parking could impact this area - positively and negatively.

I love Long's Peak. I bring my family and friends there whenever they visit, because even if we don't reach the top, just being in the presence of such a beautiful monument is enjoyable enough. It is, without a doubt, a must see in Colorado.

However, if parking increases to the proposed level, what will this do to the land? The alpine areas that make up the large part of these region are fragile, and prone to damage if recreationists are unaware of how they must be treated. Thankfully, Rocky Mountain National Park has done an amazing job with the integration of Leave No Trace in to their park's culture, using the principles on backcountry permits, educating it's visitors at trail heads, and more.

What are your thoughts? What would you do - as a community member or as a supporter of Leave No Trace - if parking was suddenly increased at your favorite park? Increased traffic and user demographics are a catch-22: we need more participation in the outdoors in order to have people connect with and care about the future of the land, BUT we also risk increased impact on the land in conjunction with increased user traffic.

There's merit to both sides, I think.