Trail Guide Help
Hike Categories
Choosing a Hike Category on the
main park map page limits the number of trailhead highlights to
those that include hikes appropriate for the chosen category. Also, if a category is in effect and you click on
a trailhead, destinations that are appropriate for the chosen category will be highlighted in the destination list on
the hike info page.
Example: If you choose the Family category, and then click on the Bear Lake trailhead, the destination list on the
hike info page will have destinations Around Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, Emerald Lake and Lake Haiyaha highlighted
because they are hikes appropriate for families.
Show this example.
The available categories are:
| All | If you want to see everything, choose All. |
| Lakes, Peaks, Waterfalls | Self explanatory. |
| Family | Hikes appropriate for families. Generally shorter and easier hikes. |
| Accessible | Relatively level and smooth paths. |
| One Way | The shuttle can be used for some of these, but not all, to get back to your car. Check schedules. |
| Below xx feet | Does the altitude bother you? These are low elevation hikes. |
| xx miles | Miles refers to the total round trip mileage. |
| Less than xx feet gain | Does the uphill hiking take too much wind out of your sail? These hikes have low elevation gain. |
Elevation Gain
Elevation gain is shown for the entire hike. Because of the ups and downs along the trails, this number will nearly
always be higher than the difference between the destination elevation and the trailhead elevation. A good example
is the hike from Bear Lake to Bierstadt Lake. Bear Lake sits at 9475 feet and Bierstadt Lake sits at 9416
feet. A difference of only 59 feet. So why is the elevation gain shown as 589 feet? Because the trail
climbs about 265 feet before starting a descent down to the level of Bierstadt Lake. But that's only 265 feet gain,
where did 589 come from? Well, you have to get back to Bear Lake, which involves hiking up about 324 feet before
descending down to the level of Bear Lake. 265 plus 324 equals 589.
One Route
Choose the "One Route" mode if you only want to see a list of places you will pass on the way to your destination.
Difficulty Index
The Difficulty Index is a rating of the approximate difficulty of hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park. The
higher the number, the more difficult the hike. A hike with a rating of 10 will be roughly twice as difficult
as a hike with a rating of 5 for example. The rating is for the entire hike, from the trailhead to the featured
destination and back to the original trailhead, or to a second trailhead if a one way hike.
Although imperfect, this rating can be a useful tool to compare one hike with another. The true difficulty of
a hike depends on many factors including; distance, altitude, altitude gain, terrain, weather, hikers age
and physical conditioning etc. This index considers only distance and altitude gain, and is only
a rough guide to relative difficulty with ideal conditions. Each hiker needs to try one of these hikes
to get an idea of what rating is easy or moderate or difficult for them.
How the Difficulty Index was calculated.
The Difficulty Index formulas are:
(One way hike) Difficulty Index = (C * 0.0015) + (D * 0.0005) + M
(Two way hike) Difficulty Index = ((C + D) * 0.001 + M) * 2
Where:
C = Climbing elevation in feet (one way)
D = Descending elevation in feet (one way)
M = Distance in miles (one way)
