Last August I took a camping trip in Rocky Mountain National Park for my best friends birthday bash. It was my first time to Colorado and I absolutely loved it. There is so much to do and see in Rocky Mountain National park and its a great place to see wildlife. Colorado also has great access to Gluten Free food.
GLUTEN FREE FOOD SITUATION
I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to find Gluten Free food in Colorado. I am always cautious when leaving the Gluten Free mecca that is the Pacific Northwest because I am unsure of how I will be able to have access to food. The good news was with a little bit of research I found great options in Denver and other towns in Colorado as well. I use the Find Me Gluten Free App to find Gluten Free restaurants. There’s also some other great Celiac travel bloggers that I follow for restaurant and trip ideas like Wheatless Wanderlust, who has great guides on a lot of different cities including Denver.
On this trip we wanted to get Rocky Mountain NP as soon as possible so we stocked up on groceries at Natural Grocers. Natural Grocers is my favorite store to find Gluten Free food here in the west. They always have a great selection of items at reasonable prices. I know I am going to walk out with something I can eat anytime I go into one and for a Celiac that consistency is great. I was also stoked because Colorado has a Gluten Free brewery as well called Holidaily. They sell those beers at a lot of different places so I was able to stock up and try some new delicious beers. I stocked up on snacks, dinner items, gluten free beer and then we hit the road.
WILDLIFE
We traveled through the town of Estes Park which is really cute and sits at the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Parks at the Beaver Meadows Entrance. On our return trip we walked around and checked out the town and its cute stores. However, I could not find any Gluten Free options in the town so I was glad I brought extra food but it was cute to walk through and their were plenty of options back in Boulder and Denver.
One our way into the park we headed to our group camping spot and immediately spotted a giant Elk. There are tons of herds that can be spotted throughout the park. It was a great greeting to our first night in the park.
The next day we went to check out an overlook and spotted a Pica checking out the view. Theres tons of opportunities to see some great wildlife.
KEY SPOTS TO EXPLORE
If you’re planning to do day hikes I would highly suggest getting out early in the day as summer thunderstorms can move in at anytime. We drove the trail ridge road that goes through the park and it was filled with scenic vistas. I really enjoyed the Longs Peak Vista.
I would also suggest stopping at the Continental Divide. The divide separates the flow of water on the continents. It was raining while we were there and it was cool to realize that some of the raindrops would end up in the Atlantic Ocean and others in the Pacific depending on which side they fell on.
I have dreams of some day hiking through this trail. We just car camped which ended up working out in our favor due to the summer thunderstorms but I can’t wait to go back and do some backpacking in the future.
Overall Rocky Mountain is a super accessible National park with easy access to stocking up on Gluten Free Food. I can’t wait to go back and do some more exploring.