Rocky Mountain National Park With Dogs

With snow-caped mountains, abundant wildlife, hidden lakes, and amazing hiking, Rocky Mountain National Park is a great place to visit. It’s one of the nation’s highest national parks and the Continental Divide runs right through it. As with many national parks, though, it doesn’t offer many dog-friendly options. With that beings said, we still had a great time visiting Rocky Mountain National Park with our dogs!

Scenic Drive

As discussed in our national parks blog post, scenic drives are often the highlight of our trips through a park with our dogs. Rocky Mountain National Park does not disappoint as it has some amazing driving opportunities. The highlight of the trip for us was driving the Trail Ridge Road which takes you from the Estes Park entrances down to Grand Lake.

• This road is not open year-round due to the amount of snowfall that is received on it. It typically opens late-May and closes in October. We lucked out when we were there (late May) as it had just opened. We drove through towering walls of snow that lined the drive in certain sections.
• Be on the lookout for wildlife! Within the first couple miles of driving we came across a moose relaxing in a lake and passed right next to a big heard of elk that our dogs enjoyed looking at. We also saw a lot of deer and smaller critters.
• This scenic drive has a lot of developed pull-off and parking areas where you can get out and walk your dogs around. There are some great photo opportunities to grab some shots of your four-legged friends. Just make sure to stay in the developed areas and not venture off on any trails.
• Be ready for some adventurous driving! You are climbing through the mountains with hairpin turns. If mountain driving isn’t something that interests you then this scenic drive may not be a good fit.

Pro Tip: Rocky Mountain National Park does use a permit system for timed entry during prime hours for much of the year. You will need this in order to be able to access this scenic drive. More information on that can be found here.

What If I Want To Hike?

Though you can’t hike any trails within Rocky Mountain National Park with your dogs, there are a ton of great hiking options right outside in the Estes Park area. One of our favorite hiking experiences in the area was on the Lily Mountain Trail. As with any hiking that you do at these high elevations, keep in mind the impact it will have both on you and your dogs, and watch out for afternoon rain/hail storms.

Bonus: Estes Park is very dog friendly and a great place to explore with your dogs when visiting Rocky Mountain National Park. Dog friendly breweries, lots of patios to relax on, and a fun main street shopping area to explore.

We hope this post helps you get the best adventure with your dogs! Check out our dog-friendly travel posts for more trip ideas and tips.