long day on long’s peak

13 Jul long day on long’s peak

So far, my experience at Rocky Mountain National Park has been absolutely amazing. Going into the internship, I knew that I would enjoy my time here, but I didn’t know just how much I’d love it. While there are tons of great aspects about working in Rocky, my favorite- by far- is the hiking. For the most part, every weekend I’ve had the chance to explore different trails in different parts of the park. This last weekend, I hiked up to the highest point in the Park- Long’s Peak. Waking up at 1am, my friend and I arrived at the trailhead at 2:30am. Although the first few miles were pretty easy, once we got past the keyhole the “hike” turned into a climb. After the keyhole, it was pretty much straight uphill. While this proved to be quite challenging, after nearly 2 hours of scrambling and climbing, we made it to the top. Topping off at 14,255 feet, Long’s peak is the highest point in Rocky Mountain National Park. After hanging out on the summit for a bit, my friend and I took our time with the descent down and we arrived at the trailhead at 1:30pm- for a solid 11 hour day. Although towards the end we were getting tired, the views made it absolutely worth it. To quote my friend, he said “I’ve run out of words to describe how gorgeous these views are.”

Here are some of the views:

Along with the tremendous hikes, my other favorite part of working here is the staff. The people here are amazing and very fun to be around. As an employee of the NPS, for the most part, everyone cares about the same thing- protecting the park. For that reason, regardless of what division people are in, common ground can always be found. Although Rocky’s employees are from all around the nation, because of our shared common ground, we are able to start conversations and eventually learn from each other to become an even stronger staff.

Thanks for reading!