Solo Backpacking to Lake Verna in Rocky Mountain National Park

July 11, 2026

Solo Backpacking to Lake Verna in Rocky Mountain National Park

East Inlet Trail

Rocky Mountain National Park is a great place for a first backpacking trip, to take a solo trip and for families with small children to spend a night (or two) in the backcountry. Wilderness campsites are designated and reservable online (some with privies!), visitors are required to practice robust bear safety, and, Rocky is BIG so usually at least a few campsites are available at the last minute online or by walking up to the wilderness office (East or West side of the park) which you are required to do no matter whether you book online or not.

[Note that bear canisters are required and rentable in the park and the ranger will ask to see yours. Also, a growing number of backcountry campsites require wag bags.]

We took one of our first family backpacking trips in Rocky. The kids could barely carry sleeping bags and we walked maybe a mile from the trailhead to a perfect little spot off the Cow Creek Trail. We loved it!

heading into the backcountry

Since then, RMNP has been a backpacking destination just about every summer including a rainy two-night trip up to Timber Lake and back - just me and 9-year-old Kenedy.

what a badass!

Needless to say, on a free Monday in June, with fantastic weather, while the rest of the family was busy, I decided to venture out for a solo night in the backcountry. I grabbed a backcountry site along the East Inlet Trail which I had not visited since the 1990s, packed up a few last minute food items and headed out.

Rocky is about a two hour drive from the West side of the Denver-metro area without traffic - which can be very bad on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. On this Monday, traffic wasn’t bad. Kawuneeche Visitor’s Center was busy but there was no line at the bathroom or to pick up my permit at the wilderness office (where I gladly collected my parking and trail permit and presented my packed bear canister).

East Inlet trail starts just past town (Grand Lake) in a dirt parking lot at the East inlet to Grand Lake. I paused for one last meal before heading into the backcountry - less to carry - while watching a constant flow of people park and catch the trail.

Launch from the trailhead: 2PM(ish). The hike up East Inlet trail is flat for the first few miles. Crowds were thick to Adams falls but cleared as I followed the lazy oxbows up the big glacial valley.

oxbows and a glacial valley

Wildflowers were abundant and, surprisingly, so was water after a shockingly dry winter. Eventually the trail climbs out of the valley, up numerous sets of trail stairs (wow), past small waterfalls and up and over a butte to a higher, narrower valley.

halfway breather

At about 4PM, after a good climb up the very sunny South-facing slope, during the hottest part of the day, I stopped for a breather on a big rock seemingly in the middle of the river.

The last, final push passed Lone Pine Lake and it’s resident waterfowl, rounded a granite outcropping and settled into a sort of gap (which reminded me of a smaller, Rocky Mountain version of Kaweah Gap in the Sierras) with the trail nestled between mountain walls, following the overflowing snowmelt of the East Inlet.

the trees seem to have taken over the trail

The trail this year, in early-ish season, maybe because of staffing cuts, required some gymnastics to pass very, very large downed trees that criss-crossed the trail. This took some time and I arrived at my campsite at the solitary (almost) end of this fun, beautiful trail.