Colorado State University Local Park Outing at Rocky Mountain National Park

On April 6th, 2025, Josie and I took a group of 6 participants to Rocky Mountain National Park. This is a local National Park about one hour from CSU’s campus, where we did a snow hike to Emerald Lake. We chose Rocky Mountain National Park as it is our backyard out here, and we wanted to make sure students were able to experience it. Emerald Lake was an easy choice as it is a moderate hike that goes to a beautiful alpine lake surrounded by jagged cliffs.

After the hike, we stopped by a Ranger Station to see what it offered. The outing was really fun, and we had a great group of people along with us, including Annaliese! Due to the snow on the ground, which was mostly packed down, it got a bit slippery in places and made for some exciting hills to go up and down. The participants enjoyed the outing; some wanted a longer hike, but we did our best to accommodate everyone, especially with the ground conditions.

I think a real stand-out moment for us was when we were all sitting down eating lunch by the lak,e just because it was so beautiful and we had some great conversations there. While we can’t speak for the participants, we hope that we encouraged them to get out to our parks more, even in off-peak seasons. We also hope to have shown them how amazing our backyard in Colorado can be and how accessible our parks are!