Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado Adventure Session
When I and Jake were planning our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, we half jokingly mentioned it to our friends and said, “you should join us!”. And that was about all it took to convince them to come explore Rocky Mountain National Park with us - can you tell they are travel junkies too? I also knew Taylyn was wanting to do an adventure session for their 5 year anniversary and we both figured Colorado would be a pretty excellent back drop for it!
Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado offers a lot of options for adventure sessions. Keep scrolling to find out some tips to plan your trip and what to expect in this breathtaking and diverse national park.
Do you need a permit for your adventure session in the park? YES!
You need a permit for both weddings and adventure sessions. If you are planning an engagement session or adventure session in Rocky Mountain National Park this will be more easily attainable as they are a lot less strict for sessions. When it comes to weddings, I recommend planning with plenty of time prior to your date. Since it is recently such a popular spot, they have begun limiting the number of permits to protect the land. They are issuing a maximum of 250 private wedding permits for 2021, on a first-come-first-serve basis! You can read more about the wedding permits here. (Of course there are plenty of other locations in Colorado that don’t require permits!) For Taylyn and Ross, we chose a couple hikes to do together and we just shot along the way, stopping at beautiful spots, but mostly letting them just enjoy nature and their time together, as they wanted more candid shots focused on the epic landscape.
Where can I have my ceremony in the park?
There are many incredible options for a ceremony in the park, read here their comprehensive list. It's breathtaking! If you are dreaming of alpine lakes, huge snow capped mountains, lush meadows, then Rocky Mountain National Park your dream location. There are many more options for sessions since there are less people involved.
The best time to visit Rocky Mountain National Park is from June to September.
We went in the middle of September and it was perfect! That kind of day where it’s cool and crisp in the morning and then sunny and warm during the day, yet still not too hot to make you sweat! Somehow we also had no rain on our trip! We also got to see the large herds of elk in the meadows and it was incredible! I will say, since the pandemic, they were limiting entry into the park, so fortunately it wasn’t very crowded, but I suspect on normal circumstances, during September it would be much more crowded than we experienced. While June to September is the peak season, once you travel enough, you learn that there typically isn’t a truly bad time of the year to go anywhere. Like they say, there isn’t bad weather, just bad attitudes. I bet the park is stunning any time of the year. You can read more about the various weather here to help you determine when you might want to visit.
How many days should I plan to visit Rocky Mountain National Park?
Preferably at least 3 days to get a glimpse of Rocky Mountain National Park. This will give you time to drive the stunning Trail Ridge Road, and hike a few of the trails. If you absolutely love hiking, I recommend at least 5 or more days in the park. We personally chose to travel and camp via a renovated van, it was the perfect option for us that allowed for comfort and flexibility, plus there were plenty of campgrounds to park our van and access bathrooms/showers.
Can I bring my dog with me to the park?
Unfortunately, no. Dogs and other pets are prohibited on all Rocky Mountain National Park trails, tundras, and meadows. Since you are in the wilderness especially among the wildlife in the area this is for their own protection as well as that of the local plant and animal life. However they are welcome in most camp grounds.
