Hiking to the GORGEOUS Sky Pond at Rocky Mountain National Park

Yesterday we spent a gloomy day exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. We saw a bunch of wildlife, attempted to hike Mount Ida, which was beautiful from what we saw before we turned around due to weather, and drove Trail Ridge Road where we got sleeted on and enjoyed the tundra views. This is so fun. Yeah, this is fun. And today for our final Colorado adventure, we're going to do the number one hike we wanted to do during this visit to Rocky Mountain National Park, Sky Pond. As we mentioned yesterday, you need a permit to enter Rocky Mountain National Park and to hike to Sky Pond, you need the Bear Lake Corridor permit, which is required starting at 5am. So it's 3.30 in the morning and we're headed to the park. That way we can get in before the permit is required. We got to the Glacier Gorge parking area just before 4.30 and there still was plenty of parking. We were going to wait until the sun came up to start the hike, but we just keep hearing more and more cars coming and the parking lot's starting to fill up. So I think we're just going to go for it in the dark. The hike to Sky Pond is between eight and a half and nine and a half miles. We've seen different mileage, so we're not totally sure. It has a good amount of elevation gain and along the way you'll pass lakes, rivers, waterfalls, tons of cool features. And since we're starting in the dark, we'll make sure to show you guys all that cool stuff on the way back in the light. It's been a really nice trail. I mean, we started in the dark so you couldn't see a whole lot, but once the light came up and then had a really nice orange sunrise, lasted a really long time on the horizon and now we've gained a little bit of elevation and so we're getting into this river valley here and it's really opened up a lot and it's been a beautiful morning so far. So the trail we've been on actually goes to quite a few different places, one of which is Mills Lake and we just got to the point where you split off to go to Mills Lake or go to Sky Pond and we actually did Mills Lake last time. There's a gorgeous lake, so we recommend that one as well. It's a little bit shorter. Also from the area we started, you're really close to Bear Lake, which has a trail that takes you to Bear, Nymph, Dream and Emerald Lakes. It's an awesome hike and it's pretty short as well, so that's a good option if you want something a little bit shorter kind of in this area of the park. We're just stepping up to the first lake on the trail. The lock has an epic backdrop too. This is really cool. The reflections right now are insane. Oh, it's like glass. Perfect. This first lake was so stunning. We still have two more to go. We made it to the bottom of this really beautiful waterfall. Fixing to climb up this hill here and then we're going to kind of climb almost through and in between and on the waterfall and then on top is Lake of Glass and then Sky Pond will be right after that. There's a snowy part right here that looks kind of steep and slick. We've seen a few people kind of struggle to get up it, so we brought our spikes. So we're gonna put these on just so we can get up it faster. I don't think we'll need, we really need them, but I just feel more comfortable hiking on slick stuff in them. They're so fun. You can basically like, don't do this, you basically run on ice in these things. All right, now the fun part going up through the waterfall. I get a little wet. It's cool. That was pretty fun. Catherine wasn't a huge fan of it, but I thought it was a lot of fun. It was half fun, half scary. Going down will be a little tricky, but... Yeah, going down is not gonna be fun. This is gonna be really good. The sun poking through with the clouds and the mist and all that, it's putting on a show. It's beautiful. So this is the Lake of Glass, and I think just on the other side of those rocks over there is Sky Pond. We've made it to Sky Pond and even with some fog, which is kind of clearing up right now, it is magnificent. It is one of the most beautiful just lake, not even the lake, but just the surroundings of the lake that we've ever seen. We cannot believe how lucky we got with this weather. When we first pulled up here, it was kind of foggy, but then it really cleared out and we had a nice good, maybe 20-30 minute window of just perfect scenes here. But now, as you can see, rolled right back in. We're about to walk away and the fog rolled back in. It totally makes up for yesterday with just having a lot of fog and not a ton of views, but this lake is insanely gorgeous. Just the Rocky Mountain... Rocky Mountains. The Rocky Mountains, that's why they name it that. The Rocky Mountains surrounding it are gorgeous, especially the Shark's Tooth, which... These guys right back here. I love me the jagged ones. These ones are crazy. And it actually looks so mysterious and beautiful with the clouds and the fog. Just adds another like little layer element to it. Really neat. Man, I don't want to leave. Like it's getting really cold. It's hard to walk away. We just keep saying, oh, one more photo, but it's getting really chilly. So I think we're going to head back down. Just like two minutes later, completely fogged up. You couldn't even tell there's mountains behind that. Just completely gone. I just can't get over how lucky we got. This was incredible. Amazing. Back down the waterfall we go. You excited? You look pumped. I'm stoked. I did it. Much trickier coming down. For sure. It was kind of scary. So yeah, we feel like dummies. This is the ice shelf that we used our spikes on. And going down, we saw a guy coming up the rocks right next to it. We're not the only ones who didn't notice this path. Much easier. Yeah. The hike ended up being 9.9 miles and took us just under six hours to complete. It's our favorite hike we've ever done out of our two trips here at Rocky Mountain. It was just amazing from start to finish. But now we're going to head outside the park to Estes Park, which is about 10 minutes outside the boundary. And about 30 minutes from the Glacier Gorge trailhead. Estes Park is a really cute town, although obviously a little touristy and busy because of its proximity to the park. But it has incredible mountain views, a river walk, a historic hotel, lots of wildlife shops, and most importantly, food for after a killer hike. We grabbed takeout from a spot called Nepal's Cafe. We had these grand plans to go eat by the river or have a scenic picnic somewhere, but it poured down rain for a while and everything is soaking wet. So we're just going to eat in the front of the van. But this is a Nepalese and Indian restaurant. And we came here for one item, well two items, but one especially in particular that we hear is really delicious. A chicken momo. So we've never had momos before, but basically what it is, it's a steamed filled dumpling. And like Catherine said, we got the chicken ones and it has some other ingredients. Not really sure. And it came with this really good looking dipping sauce. I don't really know what these look like. Oh, they look like pot stickers. Kind of. Oh, they smell super good. These are hefty little guys here. They're packed full of stuff. I don't even really know how to describe it. It is really good. Definitely like, you know, steam texture. So everything's really tender, juicy. There's lots of flavor in there. Like I want to say like curry flavor. Yeah, I don't even know what flavors are in this. I'm doing a bad job of describing it, but it's very flavorful. But I can't tell you what it is. Adam has me very intrigued about what this will taste like. I don't know how to describe the flavor of these, but they are delicious. The chicken is nice and shredded and is so juicy. And the sauce is delicious as well. It's very comforting. It just is nice after this rainy kind of afternoon that we suddenly had. It's such a nice comforting dish. It's the perfect like handheld just kind of snack to have after a hike. Oh, and we got a mango lassi. Oh, yeah. Oh, this is so good. So a lassi is basically yogurt and fruit kind of blended together. Like we said, this is a mango one. I've never had one. So it's very creamy and fruity and very refreshing. So refreshing after a hike. These momos, though, I could eat a whole bucket. These are so really good. Very comforting, too. It comes in a pack or not a pack. It comes in an order of 12. And I think it was $12. So it's a for us just kind of like an afterhike snack. Not too bad. And while I was waiting, they also gave me tea to drink. Adam was in the van, so I got it to myself. But it was so nice of them and it was so delicious. Unfortunately, that's the end of our time at Rocky Mountain National Park and in Colorado on camera, at least. We're actually heading into Denver tomorrow to drop off our van to hopefully get fixed. I say hopefully because it's just been the biggest headache and ordeal we've had to deal with in a very long time. But while it's hopefully being fixed, my brothers are actually coming up from Texas and we're going to be coming back to Estes Park in Rocky Mountain National Park with them and exploring a bit. But without cameras, which is something we never, ever get to do. So we're excited for a little mini vacation, but we'll be sharing what we get up to on Instagram. So make sure to follow us there to see more of this gorgeous area. And after that, we're going to head to Wyoming. We are super bummed to leave Colorado. We've had the best time here, but we're very excited to go back to Wyoming. It was the first place we actually went to in the van, so can't wait to get back there. We're going to take most of July as like a catch up on work month, but we do have a handful of adventures that we can't wait to share. Big shout out to Antonio's Real New York Pizza. We came here on a day we weren't vlogging, but it was so dang good. We had to give them a shout out. So Tony and Kate, the owners of Antonio's Real New York Pizza, actually watch our channel. So it was really fun to get to meet Kate, not you, Tony, unfortunately. But Kate hooked us up with some delicious desserts to take back with us. Thank you so much. Pizza's so good. If y'all are in Estes Park, come here and get yourself some pizza. Oh, I know Kona. Kona. No, no, no. None for you. That smells really good. Can I have one, please? Can Kona have a mamaw, please?