Welcome to RockyMountainHikingTrails.com

Welcome to RockyMountainHikingTrails.com, the most comprehensive site on the web for information on hiking trails in Rocky Mountain National Park.

RockyMountainHikingTrails.com provides detailed information for more than 80 hikes throughout Rocky Mountain National Park. The website provides trail descriptions, pictures, key trail features, hike length, difficulty ratings, trail maps and elevation profiles. The authors of RockyMountainHikingTrails.com have personally hiked every trail covered on this website, and have published original content based on those hikes.

The authors also have extensive experience hiking throughout the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains. You can visit our sister hiking trail websites for Grand Teton National Park, Glacier National Park and Discover the West. Our sites have been mentioned or referenced in a wide variety of publications and websites, including National Geographic Travel, Outside Online, Washington Post, CBS News, USA Today, Men's Journal, Travel Channel, Condé Nast Traveler, Weather Channel, Money Magazine, MSN, Huffington Post, Yahoo News, Business Insider, as well as numerous local news outlets.

In 2023 the author of this website published an expanded edition on the rich history of hiking. Ramble On: How Hiking Became One of the Most Popular Outdoor Activities in the World is now available on Amazon.



 Contact Information

Any feedback you have about the website would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or would like to see any additional information down the road, please contact us at:

info@rockymountainhikingtrails.com

If you would like to advertise on this website, please contact us at:

advertise@rockymountainhikingtrails.com



 RockyMountainHikingTrails.com Press Releases

11/8/12: RockyMountainHikingTrails.com Announces Launch of Website

2/7/23: "Ramble On" (a history of hiking - 2nd edition)



 Explanation of Hike Difficulty Rating

You'll probably read and hear a lot about the difficulty of any given trail within Rocky Mountain National Park. I've found these ratings to be too general and highly subjective. While researching hikes for a trip several years ago, I found a website that attempted to remove the subjectivism out of trail difficulty ratings by using a mathematical formula.

This formula originally came from Paul Petzoldt, a mountaineer and founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). In 1976 he proposed a theory to help backpackers plan trips and calculate their energy needs while on the trail in his book, Teton Trails. His theory states that one energy mile is equal to the energy required to walk one mile on flat terrain. He also said that you need to add two energy miles for every 1000 feet of elevation gain. In other words, if you hiked one mile while climbing 1000 feet, you would've used the equivalent of three energy miles.

Petzoldt's theory had never been tested before. That is until 2010, when a study was conducted at Western Carolina University’s Exercise Physiology Laboratory, by Maridy Troy, assistant professor in WCU’s health and physical education program, and Maurice Phipps, professor of parks and recreation management.

The study measured the energy cost and perceived exertion for walking on flat terrain, with and without a backpack, as well as an elevation gain of 1000 feet. Results from the data show an average of a 1.6-mile equivalent for a 1000 foot gain in elevation. Differences between females and males ranged from 1.32 to 2.02. Professor Phipps stated in an article for WCU news that the range revealed by the study was due to the "hikers" personal weight differences. The abstract from the study states that further research using heavier expedition packs at higher altitudes could also reveal changes in energy cost as well.

"It is remarkable that Petzoldt's energy mile theory is so close to the actual energy cost measured during our study," Phipps stated. He also said the energy required for hiking up steep mountain trails would vary for individuals and groups, and the variables of the trail would also factor in, but he recommends that backpackers stick with Petzoldt’s theory of adding two energy miles for every 1,000 feet in elevation gain.

This formula has allowed me to roughly gauge the relative difficulty of Rocky Mountain National Park’s trails.

Of course these ratings are only an indicator of hike difficulty - every hike has its variables beyond elevation gain and distance, including weather, experience/fitness level, unique trail conditions, start/end elevation, etc. This rating system simply gives the hiker a reference point between one trail and another.

As a general rule of thumb, a difficulty rating of less than 5 is considered to be an easy hike. Between 5 and 10 is moderate, and anything over 10 is considered to be strenuous.