Sprague Lake Hike | Colorado

In the many different times Tyler and I had traveled to Colorado, I had never brought him to Rocky Mountain National Park. Upon arrival in Estes Park, we realized that the rules had changed partially due to Covid-19.

A very kind gentlemen at our camp site told us that they were expecting about 7 million visitors to the park this year! And unfortunately, entry was going to be a bit more complicated this time around. You had to call to make reservations for the next day so we just opted to spend our money on this peaceful campground nearby for a couple of nights.

We were fortunate to find the PERFECT camp site at the Estes Park Campground East Portal! It was the last spot available for both nights. And the view from our picnic table/fire pit was amazing! In the last photo above, you can see where I was hanging out on the table enjoying the scene (drinking coffee as per usual). Our site even had a “bear vault” that had marks on it from when a bear tried getting into it! You’d put your food/cooler/trash in there. I’ll include a photo of that below!

We then ended up on a hike up to Sprague Lake. Let me just say…the view was WELL WORTH the heat and tired legs!

The wildflowers were in summer bloom which made for an even more enjoyable hike!

I admit, it was ungodly hot. We thought we were going to pass out a couple of times because of the altitude. Luckily, we had enough water and we knew where we were in the event we had to stop for a while. It’s a relatively short loop but was still a moderate hike for us.

Once we returned back to our camp, we noticed a few deer around our site. Being out here is where our hearts are happiest.